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THE mr 

VALIiET OF THE CONEMAUGE 



BY 

THOMAS J. CHAl'MAN. 



ALTOONA, PA.: 

McCRUM &. DERN, PRINTERS, 
X865, 






^ 



/^ 

"Lives there a man with soul so dead, 
That never to himself hath said, 
♦This is my ov/n, my native land ?' " 

Sir W^Uir iHeoil. 



Entered according to an Act ot Congress, in the year 1865. by 
Thomas J. Chapman, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court, 
j[or the Western District of Pennsylvania, 



To my younger Brother, 

Rev. ALVA RILEY CHAPMAN, 

This little Volume 

Is Respectfully Inscribed, 

As a Mark of 

Esteem and Affection. 



1 



PEEFACE. 



The scope of this little work is to give an 
historical and descriptive account of the Valley 
of the Conemaugh, which embraces the county 
of Cambria, and a portion of the counties of 
Somerset, Indiana and Westmoreland. To 
collect and arrange the facts and incidents 
which go to make up the book, have required 
considerable labor and trouble, and, to the 
critical reader, the author begs leave to say, to 
borrow the language of Dr. Johnson, in the 
preface to his English Dictionary, "when it shall 
be found that much is omitted, let it not be 
forgotten that much likewise is performed." 

In the prosecution of this little volume the 
author has been actuated by no idea that he 
wa8 specially fitted for the task. While so 
many older men still live, natives of this 
valley, and better acquainted with its early 
history, it might seem presumptuous in a 
young man, not yet out of his twenties, to step 



6 

into the field. But there has been no promise 
of anything of the kind from the hands of these 
older men, and, meanwhile, the time is passing 
away, and the scanty materials out of which to 
form a local history of the Conemaugh valley 
are yearly growing less and less. The author 
has gathered up such of the incidents in the 
early history of this section of the country as 
have been thought worthy of preservation, and 
he takes pleasure in thus submitting the results 
of his labors to the judgment of his readers. 

He would also take this occasion to acknowl- 
edge his obligations to the many kind friends 
who have assisted him in the course of the work. 
These friends have been many. It would be 
invidious to mention a few where all have been 
so kind, and he hopes that each one will accept 
this acknowledgment as personal to himself. 

T. J. CHAPMAN. 

Johnstown, Pa., July, 1865. 



CONTENTS, 

CHAPTER I. 
Outlinea. ..... Page 9. 

CHAPTER n. 

ExpeditioiiB against the Indians. • 22, 

CHAPTER m. 
Settlement of the Valley. . . .39, 

CHAPTER IV. 
Public Thoroughfares. . . .76. 

CHAPTER V. 
Johnstown and its Suburbs. , . . 100. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Blairsville 118. 

CHAPTER Vn. 

Other Towns and Villages. . . 130. 

CHAPTER Vni. 
Cambria Iron Works. . . . 152. 



8 

CHAPTER IX. 
Other Enterprises 162. 

CHAPTER X. 
Biographical. ..... IT^. 



THE 

YALLEY OF THE CONEMAUGH. 

CHAPTER I. 

The Conemaugh river rises on the western 
slope of the Alleghenies, near their summit, in 
the county of Cambria, Pennsylvania, and at 
about the middle of its eastern boundary. A 
narrow ridge, not over sixty yards in width, 
separates the head-waters of this river from 
those of a branch of the Susquehanna; the one 
flowing towards the rising and the other towards 
the setting sun. 

The Conemaugh has its origin in little 
springs upon the mountain's side. As it pursues 
its meandering course down the declivity, it 
grows larger and larger by the tributes of 
other petty streamlets. IN'ear the village of 
Wilmore it is joined by the ITorth Branch 
which rises in the neighborhood of Ebensburg ; 
and here it first takes the name of Conemaugh. 
A few miles lower down it receives the waters 
of the South Fork, a creek that has its source 
in a swamp at the base of the mountain. 

The general course of the Conemaugh is 



10 The History of 

towards the northwest. It is about sixty 
miles in length, from the confluence of the 
ITorth Branch, near Wilmore, to Saltsburg, in 
Indiana county, where it joins the Loyalhanna, 
and thenceforth changes its name for that of 
Kiskiminetas. The Conemaugh has two prin- 
cipal tributaries : the Stony Creek, which flows 
into it at Johnstown, and the Blacklick, which 
lias its debouche about two miles below Blairs- 
ville. This river traverses Cambria county 
almost throughout its entire breadth, and then 
leaving the confines of Cambria, it forms the 
separating line between the counties of West- 
moreland and Indiana. 

The valley of the Conemaugh is in general 
exceedingly wild and uncultivated. Here and 
there along the shore are to be seen farms of 
more or less excellence and productiveness ; 
but until we get west of the Chestnut Ridge, 
we find but little land that is well adapted to 
cultivation. High hills, crowned with trees, 
and shielded by corrugated precipices, frown 
down into the clear waters of the stream. 
Huge boulders, of thousands of tons' weight, 
are strewn along the sides of the mountains, 
which nothing but the hand of God stays from 
plunging, like an avalanche, into the valleys 
below. 



The Conemaugh. :.li 

In the valley between the Laurel Hill and the 
Chestnut Eidge, however, there is a consider- 
able tract of level, fertile land, which is highly 
cultivated, and is studded with prosperous vil- 
lages and smiling farm houses, where peace 
and plenty sit enthroned. 

The Conemaugh cuts its way through two 
important ridges, outliers of the Alleghenies : 
the Laurel Hill and the Chestnut Kidore. Its 
channel through these mountains are narrow, 
deep defiles, abounding in sublime and beauti- 
ful scenery. It is a remark of travelers who 
have made the grand tour of Europe, that 
neither the Highlands of Scotland, nor the 
Alps of Switzerland, excel in beauty, sublimity 
• and picturesqueness, the mountain passes of 
the Conemaugh. Especially is this remark 
appropriate in the fall of the year, when the 
surrounding hill-sides are clothed in a thousand 
varied hues and gradations of shade ; 

"When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, 
Though all the trees ar« still ; " 

and when every prospect is mellowed and 
subdued by the quiet mid-day twilight of Indian 
Summer. ]^ot so lovely, perhaps, but far more 
grand is it when the day is dark and tempestu- 
ous, to see the heavy clouds dragging their 
tattered skirts through the tree-tops on the 
wooded heights, while now and then a tall, 



12 The History op 

spectral column of mist shoots up from the 
forest and sails majestically away, until it is 
lost to view in the dense mass of vapors over- 
head. Such a scene could have heen fittingly 
descrihed hy the graphic pen of Burns. 

Below the town of Blairsville, and, in truth, 
a mile or two above it, the country lying upon 
this stream changes its aspect somewhat, 
though steep hill-sides and forbidding preci- 
pices are still to be seen at intervals. 

Until it reaches Johnstown, the Conemaugh 
is a very insignificant stream ; in many places 
between that town and "Wilmore one could 
jump across it, as the Irishman could jump 
across one of the locks on the Regent's canal 
— in two jumps. But by the addition of the, 
waters of the Stony Creek, at Johnstown, the 
stream assumes more importance, and at once 
presents quite a river-like appearance. It is 
true the flinty gripe of the opposing mountains 
below this town sometimes compresses it, for a 
short distance, into quite diminutive propor- 
tions ; but whenever that gripe is removed it 
expands into a broad, beautiful river. 

The old Main Line of Public Works of 
Pennsylvania lies along this river throughout 
its whole length. The Pennsylvania canal is 
mainly fed by its waters — or rather was fed 



The Conemaugh. 13 

for of this canal, in great part, it may be 
said as of the city of old King Priam : Troja 
fuit. Commencing at Johnstown, the Portage 
Railroad, a link in the main line, led across 
the Allegheny Mountains to Hollidaysburg, 
conforming more or less, according to cir^ » 
cumstances, with the direction of this stream. 
The Pennsylvania Pailroad now supplies the 
place of the Portage, and runs for the greater 
part of the way almost parallel with it. It 
also follows the Conemaugh as far down as 
the Blairsville Intersection. The railroad, 
where it passes through the Chestnut Pidge, 
runs along a narrow path, cut out of the 
side of the hill, at an immense height. The 
passenger who looks down into the valley, 
when the current of air carries the smoke 
and steam from the locomotive back on the 
lower side of the train, sees below him only 
a dense cloud, as though the "iron horse" 
had turned into a Pegasus, and were cleaving 
his way towards the sun. 

There is a large number of thriving towns 
and villages situated upon this stream. The 
largest is Johnstown, at the confluence of 
Stony Creek and the Conemaugh. Here are 
erected the largest and most complete iron 
works in the Union, if not m the world. — 



M The History op 

But of this again. Above Jolinstown, on this 
stream, are Conemaugh, Summerhill, and "Wil- 
more. Below Johnstown are Nineveh, Kew 
Florence, Centreville,'Lockport, Bolivar, Blairs- 
ville, Bairdstown, Fillmore, Livermore, and 
• Saltsburg. We shall speak of these, and of 
some other towns not exactly on the Conemaugh 
yet connected with our story, in detail in another 
chapter. 

The people of the Conemaugh valley are 
engaged in a variety of pursuits. Agriculture 
is not carried on extensively in a large part of 
the valley, on account of the character of the 
soil and surface. In the lower part, from the 
neighborhood of Blairsville down to the mouth 
of the river, there is much fine farming land, 
which is well improved and cultivated. In the 
vicinity of Johnstown mining, and the manu- 
facture of iron, fire-brick, etc., demand a great 
deal of attention. The mountains abound with 
an untold wealth of ore, coal, fire-clay, limestone 
and other valuable mineral products. Compa- 
nies are also forming to bore for oil on the 
Conemaugh, as it is said there are strong 
indications of the presence of that article. — 
Though a poor farming country, the valley of 
this river is rich in mineral treasure beyond the 
"wealth of Ormus or of Ind." 



The Conbmaugh. IS 

Nearly all the nations of Christendom are 
represented in this district. Americans, Eng- 
lish, Irish, "Welsh, Scotch, and German, are the 
principal. It is also favored with a generous 
sprinkling of the sable sons and daughters of 
Ham. Some ot the townships of Cambria and 
Somerset counties are peopled almost exclu- 
sively by Germans and their descendants ; and 
a kind of jpatois — a mixture of English and 
German, called by the outsiders "country 
Dutch" — is the current tongue. The "Welsh 
element is confined almost entirely to Cambria 
county. There are large numbers of these 
people in and about Johnstown, brought there 
by the vast mining interests. They are a quiet, 
industrious, useful body of citizens. In Johns- 
town, of a Saturday, one may hear almost as 
much Welsh and German spoken as English, 

There is not much early history connected 
with the valley of the Conemaugh. '^o great 
efforts to form settlements within its boundaries 
were made until a comparatively recent date. 
Christian Frederick Post, the messenger of the 
Government of Pennsylvania to the Indians on 
the Ohio, passed through it in 1758. On the 
eleventh day of November of that year he 
passed over the present site of Johnstown. — 
Ten years prior to this time, however, in 



lit The History of 

August, 1748, Conrad Weiser, the Indian 
agent, and his companion, George Croghan, 
passed through this region. Christopher Grist, 
also, the friend of "Washington, and his com- 
panion in his arduous journey to FortLeBoeuf, 
in the fall of 1753, crossed the Allegheny 
mountains in 1750, and followed the Cone- 
maugh, which he calls the Kiskiminetas, down 
to its confluence with the Allegheny. Some 
years elapsed after this ere any settlements 
were made in the valley of this river. We will 
speak of them in their proper order. 

The principal tributaries of the Conemaugh, 
as we have said, are the Stony Creek and the 
Blacklick. The Stony Creek rises in Brothers* 
Yalley township, Somerset county. It flows in 
a northwesterly direction, and unites with 
the Conemaugh at Johnstown, in Cambria 
county. It is about forty miles in length, and 
receives in its course the waters of the Quema- 
honing. Shade, Roaring, and Paint Creeks. — 
This stream irrigates a tract of country better 
adapted to agricultural purposes than the upper 
Conemaugh. The soil of Somerset county is 
in the main highly fertile, and plentiful cropa 
of grain and hay are every year produced. It 
is also one of the best butter and cheese making 
districts in the State. Immense quantities of 



I 



The Conemaugh. 17 

these staples are every week brought to Johns- 
town in wagons from this county, to be shipped 
by railroad to the distant markets. 

Among the hills that lie upon this creek and 
its tributaries ore and coal are found. Some 
furnaces are erected, which have been a source 
of much wealth to the county. Large numbers 
of shook are made in this as well as the neigh- 
boring counties. By shook are meant bundles 
of staves fitted and bent in the proper manner, 
but not set up in the form of a cask. From 
twenty to thirty staves, thus prepared, make 
a shook. These are sent to the West Indies, 
and other tropical countries, where they are 
formed into casks, and used to receive the 
produce of the cane. In Somerset county, 
large quantities of maple sugar and molasses 
are also made. This has become a not unim- 
portant source of revenue to the manufacturers, 
as well as a great advantage to consumers, in 
the present state of high prices brought on by 
the war. 

Somerset is a large, populous, and wealthy 
county. It was partly settled at an early 
period. About the year 1830, the ruins of a 
house near Stoystown were still pointed out, 
which was said to have been built in 1758, at 
the time of General Forbes' expedition against 



IS The History of 

the Indians. This county is affectionately- 
denominated *' Mother Somerset," by the 
people of the surrounding country. 

In 1758, Post, the government messenger^ 
passed through what is now Somerset county. 
November sixth, of that year, he writes: "One 
of our horses went back; we huiuted a good 
while for him. Then we set off and found one 
of the worst roads thai ever loas traveled until 
Stony Creek. Upon the road we overtook a 
great number of pack-horses, whereupon Pis- 
quetomen said: 'Brother, now you see if you 
had not come to us before, this road would not 
be so safe as it is ; now you see we could have 
destroyed all this people on the road, and great 
mischief would have been done, if you had not 
stopt and drawn our people back.' 

"We were informed that the general (Forbes) 
had notyetgone to Fort Du Quesne, whereupon 
Pisquetomen said he was glad, and expressed 
himself thus: 'If I can come to our towns be- 
fore the general makes his attack, I know your 
people will draw back, and leave the French/ 

"We lodged this night at Stony Creek." 

This creek, where it empties into the Cone- 
maugh, presents a nobler appearance than the 
river into which it merges, and for which it 
changes its name. It reminds us of a large 



The Conemaugh. 19 

woman losing her name and her identity by 
marriage with an attenuated specimen of the 
genus homo. It doesn't look reasonable : though 
we accept the decree, in the first instance at 
least, with gratitude, inasmuch as Conemaugh 
is more euphonious than Stony Creek, and is 
one of those * 'sweet Indian names" that a 
certain set of sentimentalists dote upon. 

The Blacklick, the other principal tributary 
of the Conemaugh, has its rise m the north- 
western part of Cambria county, and taking a 
southwestern direction, flows through the 
county of Indiana, and empties its waters into 
the river about two miles below the town of 
Blairsville. At a short distance above Black- 
lick Station, on the Indiana Branch Railroad, 
it is joined by the Twolick Creek, which 
considerably increases its flood. There are 
various improvements along the Blacklick; 
many fine farms, numerous mills, and one 
furnace. The Twolick is augmented by the 
waters of the Yellow Creek, which are emptied 
into it at Homer. 

. At what is now known as Lichenthaler's 
Ford, on the Blacklick, were discovered, a few 
years ago, the evidences of a former Indian 
village. The ground, when first plowed up, 
was found to be a. rich, black mold, such as i^ 



20 The History of 

to be found only where men have long been 
dwelling together, while pieces of broken 
pottery, and arrow and spear-heads of flint 
were lying about in great abundance. We 
have walked over the ground, and picked up 
these relics of a by-gone age and race. Certain 
aged persons in the neighborhood could remem- 
ber a tradition concerning an aboriginal village 
somewhere in that region, though they never 
knew the exact locality. Mounds, too, were to 
be seen in the adjacent woods, such as are said 
to be the humble mausolea ot the red men; 
but as no one ever had curiosity or public spirit 
enough to open them, it is not known whether 
they contain the remains ot the rude children 
of the forest, or whether they have been formed 
by merely natural causes. 

Much of the scenery along the Blacklick is 
highly picturesque. A greatpartof the country 
upon its banks is yet in a state of nature. — 
Railroads, and modern innovations generally, 
have not yet penetrated there. Particularly is 
the scenery near the mouth of the creek grand 
and beautiful. At the distance of about half a 
mile from the Conemaugh a well constructed 
bridge is thrown across the stream. On the 
right hand side are fine fields, fruitful orchards^ 
and comfortable farm houses. The opposite 



The Conemaugh. 21 

side, however, is high and precipitous. A road 
winds up the side of the acclivity, while above 
it rise many feet of rocks, 

"Crown'd with rough thickets, and a nodding wood." 

Before the advent of the white people, Indian 
villages were scattered along the shores of the 
Conemaugh and its tributaries. Here the 
dusky warriors danced around the camp-fire^ 
and shouted their songs of victory and defiance. 
Here the Indian mother hushed her children to 
sleep by chanting the glorious deeds of the red 
man. The eagle built his aerie upon the rocks, 
and the bear, the wolf, and the elk inhabited 
the unbroken wilderness. But all this is 
changed. Pleasant fields and thriving towns 
now lie upon the margin of this stream. For- 
ests, it is true, still wave in all their pristine 
wildness upon the overhanging mountains, but 
the ringing of the woodman's axe, the shrill 
whistle of the locomotive, and the ponderous 
thumping of the forge-hammer have frightened 
away the Indian and the eagle forever. 



CHAPTER II. 



EXPEDITION'S AGAmST THE INDIAI^S. 
Pennsylvania, during the middle years of 
the last century, was a scene of havoc and 
bloodshed. The Indians, stirred up by the 
French, who were at war with the English, 
committed the most horrid excesses upon the 
defenceless people of the frontier. The toma- 
hawk and the scalping-knife were constantly 
dripping with the blood of their victims. The 
glare of burning cabins and barns often lighted 
up the gloom of midnight. 

"Why flames the far summit ? Why shoot to the blast 
Those embers, like stars from the firmament cast ? 
' Tis the fire-shower of ruin, all dreadfully driven 
From his aerie that beacons the darkness of hearen." 

Roving bands of marauders scoured the coun- 
try far and near, and often fell upon the lonely 
habitation or the isolated hamlet like a thun- 
derbolt. Under such circumstances it was 
impossible for the remote settlements of Penn- 
sylvania to prosper. The pioneer was compelled 
to lay down the axe for the rifle, and the 
pruning-hook for the sword. These gangs of 
murderous savages usually made their incur- 
sions up the valley of the Conemaugh, and 
across the mountains to the head-waters of the 
Susquehanna, and thence down that stream to 



The Conemaugh. 23 

tlie settlements upon its hanks. At an early 
day in the trouhles the smoke from no white 
settler's chimney curled ahove the forest trees 
to the west of the Alleghenies. 

For the protection of the colonists, and as a 
war measure against France, the government 
of England projected several important expedi- 
tions against the comhined French and Indians 
in North America. With some of these enter- 
prises we have to do, inasmuch as they very 
nearly concerned the condition of things in 
that part of Pennsylvania of which we are 
treating. 

The first of these enterprises, and that around 
which clusters the greatest interest for us, was 
the ill-starred expedition under Major General 
Edward Braddock, in 1T55. Braddock had 
the reputation of a hrave and skillful officer. 
In the early part of the year 1755, he arrived in 
this country with two regiments of royal troops, 
the 44th and 48th, under Sir Peter Halkett and 
Colonel Dunhar. At Fort Cumberland, on 
Will's Creek, he was joined by about one 
thousand provincial troops. The army, how- 
ever, was delayed some weeks for want of 
means of transportation for their baggage and 
stores. At length, on the 8th of June, they 
took up their line of march. Their destination 



24 The History of 

was Fort Duquesne, at the junction of the 
Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, on the 
present site of Pittsburg. This fort was in the 
possession of the French, who, the year before, 
had taken it yet unfinished from Ensign Ward. 

The progress of Braddock's army was very 
slow, on account of the nature of the road, and 
the cumbrous character of their i)aggage. At 
the suggestion of George Washington, then a 
young man who acted as aid-de-camp to Brad- 
dock, it was determined to leave the greater 
part of the baggage under a sufiicient escort to 
follow after by slow and easy marches, and 
push on a picked force with all speed. The 
baggage was accordingly left to the care of 
Colonel Dunbar, while General Braddock, 
with some twelve or thirteen hundred men, 
went forward. 

In the forenoon of the 9th day of July they 
crossed over to the left hand side of the Mo- 
nongahela, a little below the mouth of the 
Youghiogheny, in order to avoid some hills 
that obstructed their march. Between twelve 
and one o'clock, noon, they re-crossed to the 
right hand side. At the spot where they 
landed, the ground slopes gently back towards 
the country, while on each side of the hillock 
are ravines from eight to ten feet deep. The 



The Conemaugh. 25 

wliole country was tlien overgrown with a 
dense forest, and the ravines were entirely 
hidden from sight. 

As this large army drew near to the place 
of their destination, the French commandant 
at the fort was greatly distressed. His force 
was small, and the fort totally unahle to resist 
the attack of such an army. In this conjunc- 
ture. Captain Beaujeu, who, it seems, was a 
man of great spirit and enterprise, after much 
persuasion and entreaty, induced a number of 
French and Indians* to go out to meet the 
enemy, and offer such resistance as was in their 
power. Early on the morning of the 9th thej 
left the fort. 

The point where Braddock's army re-crossed 
the river is within ten miles of the site of 
Fort Duquesne. It is likely that the party 
of Beaujeu first came in sight of it at this 
spot. I^ature had already prepared the ground 
to their advantage, and they at once took 
their stations in the parallel ravines, without 
having been seen or heard by the British. — 

* Various estimates are given of the force of the French and 
Indians. The largest estimate is, two hundred and fifty French 
and Canadians, and six hundred and forty Indians. The lowest 
estimate reduces the number of white men to two hundred and 
thirty-five, and Indians to six hundred. — Neville B. Craig, Esq, 

Washington, writing to his mother from Fort Cumberland, 
I8th Julj, 1755, nine days after the battle, says: "When we came 
there we were attacked by a party of French and Indians, whose 
number I am persuaded did not exceed three hundred men.'''' 



26 The History of 

Washington, who was acquainted with the 
Indian mode of warfare, proposed to the gen- 
eral commanding to send out scouts to guard 
against an ambuscade ; but the imperious 
officer spurned his proposition with contempt. 
The troops were crossed in parties of two 
hundred and three hundred. It was one 
o'clock. The general, with the last of the 
men, and the supplies, had gained the oppo- 
site shore, and the first detachment had pro- 
ceeded a short distance up the slope, when 
they were met by sharp and rapid discharges 
from hundreds of rifles. They were at once 
thrown into such confusion and fright, that 
many of them did not seem to have the use 
of their senses. Particularly was this the 
case with the British regulars. Reinforce- 
ments were hurried forward to sustain the 
first detachment, but the panic soon commu- 
nicated to them also, and they were able to 
offer but little resistance. Many of them 
huddled together like frightened sheep, and 
were mowed down by the fire of the enemy. 
The provincial troops, who were accustomed 
to the Indian mode of fighting, sprang behind 
trees, to fight them on their own terms, but 
were ordered out by the infatuated Braddock, 
who even struck some of them with his sword 
for their cowardice, as he thought it. 



The Conemaugh. 27 

Meanwhile tlie firing was kept up. Men 
were falling thick and fast on every side. The 
ground was soon covered with the dead and the 
dying. And yet the enemy was invisible. — 
The firing of the troops was by random — often 
at their own men — while the devouring flame 
of the enemy's rifles encompassed them on 
every side. For three hours this horrible 
carnage rioted. E'early seven hundred men 
had fallen, when a ball, fired by one of his own 
soldiers,* cut short the career of Braddock, 
and he fell from his horse mortally wounded- 
With the fall of Braddock ended everything 
like an attempt at resistance. The few troops 
who had remained upon the ground now turned 
and fled, taking the wounded general with 
them. A few days afterward he died. The 
enemy pursued the fljang host, remorselessly 
destroying almost all that fell into their hands. 
A number they reserved for a more cruel fate. 
They were burnt at the stake the same evening 
on the return of the savages to Fort Duquesne. 
The Point, between the Monongahela and the 
Allegheny rivers, was the scene of their immo- 
lation. 

The flying soldiery did not stop their retreat 
until they reached the camp of Colonel Dunbar, 

* Thomas Fausett, of Fayette county, Pa. 



28 The History of 

six miles in the rear. They here paused. 
After destroying nearly all their stores of every 
kind, the retreat was re-commenced. They 
returned to Fort Cumberland, their starting- 
point, on the 22d of the same month. So ended 
Braddock's expedition.* The unfortunate ter- 
mination of this affair undoubtedly was owing 
entirely to the obstinacy and self-sufficiency of 
those who had charge of the undertaking. — 
G-eneral Morris wrote on the occasion : " The 
defeat of our troops appears to me to be owing 
to the want of care and caution in the leaders, 
who have been too secure, and held in great 
contempt the Indian manner of fighting." 

The defeat of Braddock subjected the entire 
frontier to ravage and apprehension. The 
Indians were more cruel and destructive than 
ever. In his message to the Assembly, July 
24th, 1755, Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania, 
has the following language in relation to this 
disaster : ''This unfortunate and unexpected 
change in our affairs deeply affects every one 
of his majesty's colonies, but none of them in 
so sensible a manner as this province, which 
having no militia, is thereby left exposed to the 
cruel incursion of the French and barbarous 



*This account I have collated chieflv from Day's Historical 
Collections of Pennsylvania. 



The Conemaugh. 29 

Indians, who delight in shedding human blood, 
and who make no distinction as to age or sex 
— as to those who are armed against them, or 
such as they can surprise in their peaceful 
habitations — all are alike the objects of their 
cruelty — slaughtering the tender infant and 
frightened mother with equal joy and fierce- 
ness. To such enemies, spurred by the native 
cruelty of their tempers, encouraged by their 
late success, and having now no army to fear, 
are the inhabitants of this province exposed ; 
and by such must we now expect to be over- 
run, if we do not immediately prepare for our 
own defence; nor ought we to content ourselves 
with this, but resolve to drive to and confine 
the French to their own just limits."* 

During the year following the defeat of 
Braddock, the enemies of the English were 
permitted to carry on their high-handed out- 
rages almost without rebuke. On the 30th of 
August, 1756, Colonel John Armstrong, with 
an army of only three hundred and seven men, 
marched from Fort Shirley, in what is now 
Huntingdon county, against Kittanning. This 
Colonel Armstrong seems to have been one of 
the most prominent and energetic men on the 
frontier in that stormy time. Kittanning was 

* Votes of Assembly, IV, 416. 



30 The History of 

a famous Indian town upon tlie Allegheny 
river, and occupied the site of the present 
borough of the same name in Armstrong 
county. It was the headquarters of Captain 
Jacobs, a notorious Indian chief, and the gen- 
eral depot to which most of the whites whom 
they captured were transferred. 

They reached the town during the night of 
the sixth of September. As they drew near, 
they could hear the beating of the drums and 
the whooping of the warriors, who were having 
a grand break-down. Their front came to the 
river, about one hundred perches below the main 
body of the town, a short time before daylight. 
They had met with an interruption in their 
march, in the early part of the night, that had 
considerably retarded them. About six miles 
from the town, at what is now called Blanket 
Hill, they had discovered a party of Indians 
encamped in the path. It was believed that 
not more than three or four savages made up 
the party. They immediately retreated with 
the greatest possible secrecy to some distance^ 
when, after due deliberation, it was thought 
best to take a circuitous route, and not meddle 
with the savages at that time, for, if one should 
escape, he would alarm the town, and thus 
perhaps frustrate the object of the expedition. 



The Conemaugh. 31 

Lieutenant Hogg, however, with thirteen men, 
was left, with orders not to attack the Indians 
until the next morning at hreak of day, and 
then, if possible, to cut them off. 

Finally, along in the "wee sma' hours ayon 
the twal," the dusky braves left off their dan- 
cing, andfireshavingbeenkindled by the squaws 
in a corn-field near by, for the purpose of dis- 
persing the gnats, the night being very warm, 
the warriors lay down here to sleep. 

By the time Armstrong had made a proper 
disposition of his men, and everything was got 
in readiness, the gray light of morning had 
stolen upon them. A detachment was sent 
along the top of the hill until they came to a 
point opposite the body of the town, when they 
were to make an assault upon it. Supposing 
that the greater part of the warriors had lodged 
in the corn-field, a larger force was kept here, 
but the attack upon it was delayed some twenty 
minutes, until those who had been sent to the 
other point should arrive. 

At the appointed time the battle commenced. 
A warm engagement took place in the corn- 
fields. At the same time the attack upon the 
houses was begun. Captain Jacobs and those 
with him, when they beheld the approach of 
the white men, pretended to be greatly de- 



d2 The History of 

lighted, and cried out, "The white men were 
at last come, they would then have scalps 
enough." Their squaws and children, how- 
ever, they immediately ordered to take refuge 
in the woods. 

The house in which Jacobs and his compan- 
ions were, was pierced with port-holes, through 
which they could tire upon the soldiers without 
themselves being exposed. In this way they 
killed and wounded a good many. But it was 
soon determined by Armstrong to set fire to 
the houses. Before proceeding to do this the 
Indians were called on to surrender. To this 
one of them answered, "He was a man and 
would not be a prisoner." He was then told 
that he would be burnt to death, but he replied 
that he did not care, for he would kill four or 
five before he died. The houses were accord- 
ingly set on fire. As the flames progressed, 
some of the Indians jumped from the windows 
and tried to make their escape; but they were 
all shot down. 

"During the burning of the houses," says 
Armstrong, in his official report to Governor 
Denny, "which were nearly thirty in number, 
we were agreeably entertained with a quick 
succession of charged guns gradually firing off 
as they were reached by the fire ; but more so 



The Conemauuh. 38 

with the vast explosion of sundry bags and 
large kegs of gunpowder, wherewith almost 
every house abounded. The prisoners after- 
wards informing, that the Indians had fre- 
quently said they had a suiRcient stock of 
ammunition for ten years to war with the 
English. AVith the roof of Captain Jacobs" 
house, where the powder blew up, w^as thrown 
the leg and thigh of an Indian, with a child of 
three or four years old, such a hight that they 
appeared as nothing, and fell into the adjacent 
corn-field." 

Having demolished the town, and killed or 
chased away the inhabitants, Armstrong and 
his small army set out to return. Upon their 
arrival at the Indian encampment of the night 
before, they found evidences of a sanguinary 
conflict. The truth was that the scout who 
had discovered and reported the Indian party 
had been grossly deceived as to their numbers. 
When Lieutenant Hogg came to attack them 
in the morning, he discovered that they greatly 
outnumbered his own force. A severe fight 
took place, in which the lieutenant himself 
received two serious wounds, and had three of 
his men killed, after which the balance ran ofi'. 
He then crawled into a thicket of underbrush, 
where he might have remained in safety, had 



34 The History of 

not a cowardly sergeant of Captain Mercer's 
company, with three or four privates, w^ho had 
run away from the battle at Kittanning, found 
him and persuaded him to go along with them. 
They had not gone far together, when they 
were met by four Indians. Upon sight of them 
the sergeant and his companions began to flee, 
notwithstanding the lieutenant urged them to 
stand their ground like men. Here he was 
again wounded, and he died shortly afterward. 

Colonel Armstrong returned to Fort Little- 
ton, in Bedford county, about the 13th of 
September. He had lost in all forty-nine 
men — killed, seventeen ; wounded, thirteen ; 
missing, nineteen. The fall of Kittanning 
was a heavy stroke upon the savages and their 
French allies. 

In the fall of 1758, another expedition against 
Fort Duquesne was undertaken by General 
Forbes. Colonel Bouquet commanded under 
him, and the expedition is often spoken of as 
Bouquet's expedition. Colonel Washington 
had command of the troops from Virginia, 
^orth Carolina, and Maryland. The whole 
force under Forbes consisted of about seven 
thousand men. The early part of the autumn 
had been devoted to cutting a new road over 
the mountains. 



The Conbmaugh. 35 

On the 23d or 24th of October, General 
Forbes, with the rear division of the army, left 
Bedford, then called Kaystown, and advanced 
towards Loyalhanna. Colonel Bouquet had 
reached the same point some weeks before. 
In the interval he had sent out Major Grant, 
of the Highlanders, with a force of about eight 
hundred and fifty men, to reconnoitre the fort 
and the adjacent country. He was instructed 
not to approach too near the fort, and to avoid 
a collision with the enemy, if possible. But 
the impetuosity of Grant, and the glory of 
seizing the fort himself, led him to transcend 
his orders. At eleven o'clock at night of the 
third day after their departure, he, with the 
principal part of his little force, stood upon the 
brow of a hill that overlooked the fort, and 
not above a quarter of a mile from it. 

For various reasons Major Grant supposed 
that the number of the enemy was very small 
— not exceeding two hundred. Shortly after 
daybreak. Captain McDonald's company was 
sent, with drums beating, directly towards the 
fort, for the purpose of drawing them out. — 
But the major had reckoned without his host. 
As soon as the garrison were aroused from 
their slumbers by the music of the enemy, they 
sallied out in great numbers to the attack. A 



36 Thk History oi' 

desperate struggle then ensued, in whicli the 
invaders, after dreadful slaughter, were driven 
from the field, and Grant himself was taken pris- 
oner. The hill upon which this aflray waa 
commenced is still known as Grant's Hill. — 
This hattle was fought on the 14th of Septem- 
ber, and the losses to Grant's force amounted 
to over three hundred men. 

This victory so emboldened the enemy that 
they determined to attack the army under 
Bouquet, at Loyalhanna, before he should be 
strengthened by the division under Forbes. 
Accordingly, a force of fourteen hundredFrench 
and Indians, under the command of De Yetri, 
assailed him on the 12th of October. They 
fought with great desperation and fury, but 
after a conflict of tour hours they were com- 
pelled to retire with considerable loss. They 
renewed the attack after night-fall; but a few 
well-directed shells thrown into their midst 
had the eflect of dispersing them. 

The army pursued its way by very slow de- 
grees. The weather was very unfavorable, 
and the roads, as fast as made, were rendered 
almost impassable by the heavy rains. At 
length, on the 25tli of November, they reached 
the fort, but found it little more than a black 
and smouldering ruin. The enemy, upon the 



The Conemaugh. 37 

near approach of the British, had destroyed it 
and then fled. There were two magazines, 
one of which had been blown up and ruined ; 
in the other were found a large quantity of 
ammunition, gun barrels, iron, and a wagon- 
load of scalping-knives. But little else re- 
mained. 

The capture of Fort Duquesne sent a thrill 
of joy through every heart upon the frontier. 
It had long been one of the most important 
strongholds of the French in the west. Much 
blood and treasure had been spent in efibrts to 
take it, but its importance to the people over- 
balanced every other consideration. It secured 
to the Anglo-Saxon race the key to the Mis- 
sissippi valley forever. 

Governor Denny, in his Message to the 
Assembly on this occasion, says: "Gentlemen 
— I have the Pleasure to Lay before you aLetter 
Ilately received from Brigadier General Forbes, 
with the interesting and important Account 
of his Success in the Expedition against his 
Majesty's Enemies to the Westward, An Event 
which, it is true, has been purchased at a 
Considerable present Expence, but when the 
Consequences are cooly weighed and Consid- 
ered, of suftering the French to lay the Foun- 
dation of our Future Slavery, by possessing 



SS The History op 

themselves and fortifying the back Parts of his 
Majesty's Colonies on this Continent, and to 
keep open a Communication between their 
Settlements from Canada to the Mississippi, I 
am persuaded every real Friend of Liberty will 
think this Conquest could not have been too 
dearly bought. ****** The great 
Advantages that will attend this success of his 
Majesty's Arms, will be sensibly felt by all the 
British Colonies, but none so much as this 
Province, whose Inhabitants have been the 
most exposed to the Incursions and Cruelties 
of the French and their Allies from that 
Quarter."* 

* See Colonial Records, Vol. VIII, p. 257. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF THE VALLEY. 

"With tlie taking of Kittanning, and the fall 
of Fort Diiquesne, as related in the preceding 
chapter, did not come peace and safety to the 
Pennsylvania backswoodsmen. By no means. 
Though these successes on the part of the 
British greatly discomfited and crippled their 
inexorable foes, the savage red man and his 
scarce less savage accomplices continued to 
murder and devastate whenever and wherever 
they could. 

But the star of empire has ever been west- 
ward. The old fort of Duquesne was repaired 
and improved, and named after the immortal 
Pitt. A little village soon clustered about it. 
Settlements gradually crept out into the 
wilderness, and as the red man's power waned 
the white man's power continued to increase. 

In the course of time settlers made their way 
into the valley of the Conemaugh. Who was 
the first it is difficult to say. Among the first, 
however, were the Maguires, !N'agles, Ragers, 
Storms, Campbells, Hildebrands, Altmans, and 



40 The History of 

Davises. Favorable reports must have been 
transmitted by these primitive settlers to their 
friends and quondam, neighbors in the older 
settlements; for the country was speedily 
dotted by the "clearings" of the hardy back- 
woodsmen. In the course of a few years the 
population had become so great that new 
counties were formed. Of these Westmore- 
land, which we consider as partly belonging to 
the Conemaugh valley, inasmuch as that 
stream forms its northeastern boundary, was 
the first. It was erected out of Bedford county 
by act of February 26th, 1773. It then em- 
braced the entire southwestern corner of the 
State. "Previous to the year 1758, Westmore- 
land was a wilderness, trodden only by the 
wild beast, the savage, and an occasional white 
trader, or frontier-man. The access to the Forks 
of the Ohio, in those days, was either up the 
Juniata and then by water down theKiskimin- 
etas, [Conemaugh,] or by Braddock's road from 
Virginia, and thence down the Monongahela. 
The first opening through the wilderness of 
Westmoreland county was cut by General 
Forbes' army, in 1758. * * This road opened 
the way for numerous pioneers into this region ; 
but it was only safe for them to live under the 
protection of the forts."* Loyalhanna, now 

* Day's Hist. Col., pp. 680, 681 



The Conemaugh. 41 

Ligonier, seems to have been a base of military 
operations as far back as the time of Forbes' 
expedition. By a singular error this place has 
been located by some writers as only Jive miles 
west of Bedford.* After the defeat of Major 
Grant, at Fort Duquesne, the French and In- 
dians, under De Vetri, assailed Colonel Bouquet 
at this place, as we have already seen. A few 
years later, perhaps about 1760, a fort was 
built here, called Fort Ligonier. During Pon- 
tiac's war, in 1763, this fort was attacked by a 
strong force of Indians. They had also in- 
vested Fort Pitt at the same time. Lieutenant 
Blane, then in command at Ligonier, though 
his force w^as very small, bravely defended the 
fort, and the savages were repulsed. Colonel 
Bouquet, advancing from Carlisle with two 
regiments of troops, was met by the united 
forces of the Indians near Bushy Run, and after 
an obstinate engagement of one entire after- 
noon and a part of the next day, succeeded in 
totally defeating and routing the savages, and 
compelling them to abandon their designs 
against the forts. 

Hannastown, some three or four miles from 
the present site of Greensburg, was one of the 
earliest settlements in Westmoreland county. 
It was built on the road made by General 

♦See Hist. Six Counties, p. 568. 



42 The History of 

Forbes, in 1758. When the county was erected 
in 1773, the courts were directed to be held in 
this place. It contained about thirty habita- 
tions of different descriptions, a wooden court 
house and jail, and a fort stockaded with logs. 
Arthur St. Clair, Esq.,-^ afterward a conspicuous 
general in the Revolutionary and Indian wars, 
was the first prothonotary and clerk of the 
courts, and Robert Hanna, Esq., was the first 
presiding justice. During the war of the 
revolution, Ilannastown was the headquarters 
of Colonel Archibald Lochry, Lieutenant of 
Westmoreland county. It was thus a conspic- 
uous town in the early history of Western 
Pennsylvania. 

On the ISth of July, 1782, the Indians made 
a descent on Ilannastown. The frontier north- 
west of the town was almost deserted ; the 
inhabitants had fied for safety and repose to 
the older settlements. There was, therefore, 
but little impediment to the Indians, either by 
way of resistance, or even of giving warning of 
their approach. The savages first made their 
appearance at a harvest-field, about a mile and 
a half north of the village, where a party of 
the townsfolk w-ere engaged in reaping. Upon 
discovering the Indians the whole reaping 
party ran for the town, each one intent upon 

*See sketch of his life, chapter X. 



The Conbmaugh. 43 

his own safety. The scene which then pre- 
sented itself may more readily be conceived 
than described. Fathers seeking for their 
wives and children, and children calling upon 
their parents and friends, and all hurrying in a 
state of consternation to the fort. The Indians 
were not long in reaching the town; but for- 
tunately not until the inhabitants were about 
all safely in the fort. As the savages emerged 
into the open space around the town, sounding 
the dreaded war-whoop and brandishing their 
tomahawks, a young man named David Shaw, 
who had not yet entered the fort, resolved to 
make one of them give his death halloo, and 
raising his rifle to his eye, his bullet whizzed 
true, for the stout savage at whom he aimed 
bounded into the air and fell upon his face. 
Then, with the speed of an arrow, Shaw fled 
for the fort and entered in safety. The Indians 
were exasperated when they found the town 
deserted, and after pillaging the houses they 
set them on fire. Although a considerable 
part of the town was within rifle range of the 
fort, the whites did but little execution, being 
more intent on their own safety than solicitous 
about destroying the enemy. One savage, who 
had put on the military coat of one of the 
inhabitants, paraded himself so ostentatiously 



44 The History of 

that he was shot down. Except this one, and 
the one laid low by Shaw, there was no evi- 
dence of any other execution, but some human 
bones found among the ashes of one of the 
houses where they, it was supposed, burnt 
those that were killed. There were not more 
than fourteen or fifteen rifles in the fort ; and 
a company having marched from the town 
some time before, in Lochry's ill-fated cam- 
paign, many of the most efiacient men were 
absent; not more than twenty or twenty-five 
remained. A maiden. Jennet Shaw, was 
killed in the fort; a child having run opposite 
the gate, in which there were some apertures 
through which a bullet from the Indians occa- 
sionally whistled, she followed it, and as she 
stooped to pick it up a bullet entered her 
bosom — she thus fell a victim to her kindness 
of heart. The savages, with their wild yells 
and hideous gesticulations, exulted as the 
flames spread, and looked like demoniacs re- 
joicing over the lost hopes of mortals. 

From Hannastown the Indians went to Mil- 
ler's Station, two miles south of the town. 
Here were a number of families who had fled 
for safety from their homes on the extreme 
border. There had been a wedding here the 
day before. Love is a delicate plant, but will 



The Conemaugh. 45 

take root in the midst of perils in gentle 
bosoms. A young couple, fugitives from the 
frontier, fell in love and were married. The 
bridal party were enjoying themselves in the 
principal mansion, without the least shadow of 
approaching danger. Some men were mowing 
in the meadow — people in the cabins were 
variously occupied — when suddenly the war- 
whoop, like a clap of thunder from a cloudless 
sky, broke upon their astonished ears. The 
people in the cabins and those in the meadow 
mostly made their escape. At the principal 
mansion the party were so agitated by the 
cries of women and children, mingling with 
the yells of the savages that all were for a 
moment irresolute, and that moment sealed 
their fate. John Brownlee and his family 
were there. This individual was well known 
in frontier forage and scouting parties. His 
courage, activity, generosity, and manly form 
won for him among his associates, as they win 
everywhere, confidence and attachment. Many 
of the Indians were acquainted with his char- 
acter — some of them probably had seen his 
person. After that first moment of terror had 
passed, Brownlee made his way to the door, 
having seized a rifle ; he saw, however, that it 
was a desperate game, but made a rush at 



46 The History op 

some Indians who were entering the gate. 
The shrill, clear voice of his wife, exclaiming, 
"Jack, will you leave me?" instantly recalled 
him, and he sat down heside her at the door, 
yielding himself a willing victim. The party 
were made prisoners, including the hridegroom 
and bride, and several of the family of Miller, 
Longfellow, in his beautiful poem of "Evan- 
geline," nearly describes this scene: 

"As, when the air is serene in the sultry solstice of summer, 
Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the hailstones 
Beats down the farmer's corn in the field and shatters his windows. 
Hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch from the 

house-roofs. 
Bellowing fly the herds, and seek to break their inclosures; 
So on the hearts of the people descended the words of the speaker. 
Silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, and then rose 
Louder and ever louder a wail of sorrow and anger." 

Heavy were the hearts of the women and 
maidens as they were led into captivity. Who 
can tell the bitterness of their sorrow ? They 
looked, as they thought, for the last time upon 
the dear fields of their country, and of civilized 
life. They had proceeded about half a mile, 
and four or five Indians near the group of 
prisoners in which was Brownlee, were observed 
to exchange rapid sentences among each other, 
and look earnestly at him. Some of the pris- 
oners had named him ; and, whether it was 
from that circumstance or because some of the 
Indians had recognized his person, it was evident 



The Conemaugh. 47 

that he was a doomed man. He stooped 
slightly to adjust his child on his back, which 
he carried in addition to the baggage that 
they had put upon him ; and, as he did so, one 
of the Indians who had looked so earnestly at 
him, stepped to him hastily and buried a toma- 
hawk in his head. "When he fell, the child 
was quickly dispatched by the same individual. 
One of the women captives screamed at this 
butchery, and the same bloody instrument and 
ferocious hand immediately ended her agony 
of spirit. God tempers the wind to the shorn 
lamb, and he enabled Mrs. Brownlee to bear 
that scene in speechless agony of woe. Their 
bodies were found the next day by the settlers, 
and interred where they fell. As the shades of 
evening began to fall, the marauders met again 
on the plains of Hannastown. They retired 
into the low grounds about the Crab tree creek, 
and there regaled themselves on what they had 
stolen. It was their intention to attack the fort 
the next morning before the dawn of day. 

At nightfall, some thirty settlers assembled 
at George's Farm, not far from Miller's, deter- 
mined that night to give what assistance they 
could to the people in the fort at Hannastown. 
They set oiF, each with his trusty rifle, some on 
horseback and some on foot. With the great- 



48 The History of 

est precaution they marched to the gate, and 
were most joyfully welcomed by those within. 
It was the general opinion that the Indians in- 
tended to make an attack the next morning : 
and, as there were but about forty-five rifles in 
the fort, and about fifty-five or sixty men, the 
contest was considered extremely doubtful, 
considering the great superiority of numbers on 
the part of the savages. It became, therefore, 
ft matter of the first importance to impress the 
enemy with a belief that large reinforcements 
were arriving. For that purpose, the horses 
were mounted by active men and brought full 
trot over the bridge of plank that was across 
the ditch which surrounded the stockading. 
This was frequently repeated. Two old drums 
were found in the fort, which were new braced, 
and music on the fife and drum was kept oc- 
casionally going during the night. While 
marching and countermarching, the bridge 
was frequently crossed on foot by the whole 
garrison. These measures had the desired 
effect. The military music from the fort, the 
trampling of the horses, and the marching 
over the bridge, were borne on the silence of 
night over the low lands of the Crabtree, and 
the sounds carried terroi into the bosoms of 
the cowardly savages. They feared the retri- 



The Conemaugh. 49 

bution which they deserved, and fled shortly 
after midnight. Three hundred Indians, and 
about sixty white savages in the shape of refu- 
gees, that day crossed the Crabtree, with the 
intention of destroying Hannastown and Mil- 
ler's Station. The next day, a number of the 
whites pursued the trail as far as the Kiskimin- 
etas without being able to overtake them. 

The little community, which had now no 
homes but what the fort supplied, looked out 
on the ruins of the town with the deepest 
sorrow. It had been to them the scene of 
heartfelt joys — embracing the intensity and 
tenderness of all which renders the domestic 
hearth and family altar sacred. By degrees 
they all sought themselves places where they 
might, like IToah's dove, find rest for the soles 
ot their feet. The lots of the town, either by 
sale or abandonment, became merged in the 
adjoining farm; and the labors of the husband- 
man soon effaced what time might have spared. 

The prisoners were surrendered by the Indi- 
ans to the British in Canada. After the peace 
of 1783, they were delivered up, and returned 
to their country.* 

Greensburg was laid out shortly after the 

* This account of the burning of Hannastown, I have condensed 
from a well-written article first published in the "Greensburg Ar- 
gus," in 1836, and thence copied into Day's Hist. Col. 



50 The History of 

destruction of Hannastown. It was incorpo- 
rated as early as February, 1799. Its growth 
for half a century was very gradual. In 1850, 
the population was scarcely one thousand. It 
is surrounded by a highly fertile and well cul- 
tivated country. Old Westmoreland is the 
garden of Western Pennsylvania. The Pitts- 
burg and Bedford turnpike passes through the 
town, and this gave it some advantages. In it 
are a fine court house and other county build- 
ings. The Pennsylvania Eailroad now passes 
along the edge of the town. Since the con- 
struction of this thoroughfare, the town has 
improved considerably. Judge Lobengeir, 
Dr. Postlethwaite, Mr. Campbell, and Mr. 
McLellan were among the earliest settlers in 
Greeusburg. General Arthur St. Clair, of Rev- 
olutionary fame, lies buried in the Presbyterian 
churchyard. In 1832, the Masonic fraternity 
placed a monument over his grave, with the 
following inscriptions : 

On the South Side. — "The earthly remains of 
Major General Arthur St. Clair, are depos- 
ited beneath this humble monument, which is 
erected to supply the place of a nobler one, due 
from his country. He died Aug. 81, 1818, in 
the 84th year of his age." 

On the North Side. — "This stone is erected 



The Conemaugh. 51 

over the remains of their departed brother, by 
members of the Masonic Society." 

The citizens of Greensburg have ever been a 
highly moral and intelligent people. Very 
early in this century, about 1805 or 1806, 
Messrs. Snowden & McCorkle established a 
newspaper in this town, called *'The Farmers* 
Eegister." It was neutral in politics, and ably 
edited for that period. Greensburg is the 
home of Hon. Edgar Cowan, U. S. Senator, 
Hon. Henry D. Foster, Democratic candidate 
for governor in 1860, and other prominent 
public men. The town is beautifully situated 
in a fine agricultural district, and within less 
than an hour's ride of Pittsburg. 

Somerset county was the next county erected 
in the Conemaugh valley. It was organized 
by act of April 17th, 1795. It had formerly 
constituted a part of Bedford county. The 
region of country now embraced in Somerset 
county was visited by white adventurers and 
traders at a comparatively remote period. We 
have already referred to Frederick Post's, 
journey through it in 1758. John Evans, 
Alexander Magenty, and others, had penetra- 
ted these wilds as long ago as 1740. About 
1752, Evans, w^ith others, fell into the hands of 
the savages. They were carried to Quebec, 



52 The History of 

and from thence sent to Kochelle, in France, 
where they were released by the English am- 
bassador, and by him sent to London, and from 
thence they got a passage to Philadelphia. 
Magenty, while on his return from a trading 
expedition to the Cuttawa Indians, who were 
in alliance with • the crown of Great Britain, 
was taken prisoner on the 26th of January, 
1753, by a party of French Indians of the Cag- 
nawaga nation, near the Kentucky river. The 
Indians beat and abused him in the most bar- 
barous manner, and then sent him to Montreal. 
His release was effected by the mayor of 
Albany, by paying a considerable sum of 
money to the Indians who had captured him, 
and in the fall of 1753, he returned to Phila- 
delphia in destitute circumstances.* In 1758, 
a road was cut through the northeastern part 
of the county by Colonel Bouquet, under the 
command of General Forbes, and in October 
of that year an army of six thousand men 
marched over this road on their way to Fort 
Duquesne. Shortly after the fall of that 
Indian stronghold, settlements were commen- 
ced within the limits of Somerset county. 
We have already mentioned the ruins of a 
house visible to within a very recent period, 

* Votes of Assemblr. Vol. IV. 



The Conemaugh. 53 

which was said to have been built about this 
time. A fort was built at Stoystown, and a 
breastwork at the forks of the road on the 
Allegahny mountains. During the Indian 
troubles of 1763, the little garrison at Stoys- 
town was called in to strengthen the fort at 
Bedford.* 

Berlin, in Brothers' Valley township, was 
one of the first settlements in this county. It 
was settled by the Germans, many of whom 
were Dunkards. The inhabitants of the more 
exposed parts of the country frequently fled 
hither to escape the "murderous tomahawk" 
of the Indians. 

Somerset, the county seat, was laid out by 
Mr. Bruner, in 1795. It was for some time 
called Brunerstown. It was incorporated by 
act of 1804, and a supplementary act of 1807. 
It is a pleasant town, surrounded by a fine 
agricultural district, and enjoys the advantages 
of pure mountain air and water. The turnpike 
from Bedford to Washington passes through 
the town. 

The first settlers about Somerset were Mr. 
Bruner, the founder of the town, Mr. Philson, 
and Mr. Husband. During the whisky re- 
bellion, in 1794, the citizens of this county took 
no very active part, though they were generally 

* Hist. Col, p. 617. 



54 The History op 

-secretly opposed to the excise. Mr. Philson 
and Mr. Husband were more bold in the ex- 
pression of their sentiments, and were, in 
consequence, arrested, sent to Philadelphia, 
and imprisoned. Mr. Husband died in Phila- 
delphia, after enduring an imprisonment of 
about eight months. Mr. Philson was released.* 
On the 16th of October, 1833, a destructive 
fire swept over the town of Somerset, and laid 
a large part of it in ashes. An extra of the 
" Somerset Patriot" of that day, after describing 
the origin, and so forth, of the fire, goes on to 
say : "We have no means of ascertaining the 
loss — it must be immense. Upwards of thirty 
families are turned homeless in the streets. 
The part of the town which is now in ashes, 
was the most business doing and populous, as 
well as most valuable — Stores, Offices, Shops, 
Taverns — all have been consumed. Some pri- 
vate families have lost their all. Some have 
saved much of their furniture. We would 
suppose the whole loss, not less than one hun- 
dred thousand dollars.'* Public meetings were 
held throughout the country, and resolu- 
tions of condolence were passed, and still 
stronger testimonials of sympathy in the shape 
of contributions for the sufferers were liberally 
and cheerfully made.f 

*Hist. Col., p. 618. 

t Ebensburg Sky, Nor. 7, 1833. 



The Conemaugh. 55 

Indiana county was erected out of parts of 
Westmoreland and Lycoming counties by act 
of March 30th, 1803. This region of country 
was explored as long ago as 1766-67. The 
first attempt at making a settlement in the 
limits of this county is believed to have been 
made in the year 1769, in the forks of the 
Conemaugh and Blacklick. The early adven- 
turers into this section were particularly well 
pleased with the tract of country in the imme- 
diate neighborhood of the present town of 
Indiana. 

In 1771 or 1772, three or four years before 
the breaking out of the American Revolution, 
Fergus Moorhead and James Kelly had erected 
their log cabins here. The late lamented R. 
B. McCabe, Esq.,* ot Blairsville, has recorded 
the following incident in the history of these 
two hardy pioneers: 

"So soon as the cabins were finished, each 
of these adventurers betook himself at night to 
his castle. One morning Mr. Moorhead paid 
a visit to his neighbor Kelly, and was sur- 
prised to find near his cabin traces of blood 
and tufts of human hair. Kelly was not to be 
found. Moorhead, believing him to have been 
killed by the wolves, was cautiously looking 
about for his remains, when he discovered him 

* Se e sketch of his life, Chap. X. 



56 The History of 

sitting by a spring, washing the blood from 
his hair. 

"He had lain down in his cabin at night and 
fallen asleep; a wolf reached through a crack 
between the logs, and seized him by the head. 
This was repeated twice or thrice before he 
was sufficiently awakened to shift his position. 
The smallness of the crack and the size of his 
head prevented the wolf from grasping it so 
far as to have a secure hold, and that saved 
his life." 

Moses Chambers, an old British man-of- 
war's-man, was one of the first settlers in this 
wild region. Moses forsook his calling upon 
the high seas, and sought adventures of another 
kind in the wilds of our Pennsylvania forests. 
"We, of these times, have but a faint idea of the 
dangers, privations, and vicissitudes which en- 
vironed the hardy settlers of these early days. 
The following incident in the life of Chambers 
well illustrates the nature of the difficulties 
with which the settlers of our country had to 
contend : 

"Moses continued to work on his improve- 
ment till he was told one morning that the 
last johnny cake was at the fire ! What was to 
be done ? There was no possibility of a sup- 
ply short of Conococheague. He caught his 



The Conbmaugh. 57 

horse and made ready^ He broke the johnny- 
cake in two pieces, and giving one-half to his 
wife, the partner of his perils and his fortunes, 
he put up the other half in the lappet of his 
coat with thorns, and turned his horse's head 
to the east. There were no inns on the road 
in those days, nor a habitation west of the 
mountains, save, perhaps, a hut or two at Fort 
Ligonier. The Kittanning path was used to 
Ligonier, and from thence the road made by 
General Forbes' army. Where good pasture 
could be had for his horse, Moses tarried and 
baited. To him day was as night, and night 
as the day. He slept only while his horse was 
feeding, nor did he give rest to his body nor 
ease to his mind, until he returned with his 
sack stored with corn. 

"How forcibly would the affecting story of 
the patriarch Jacob apply itself to the condi- 
tion of families thus circumstanced! ^ Jacob 
said to his sons, Why do ye look one upon 
another ? and he said. Behold, I have heard 
that there is corn in Egypt; get you down 
thither, and buy for us from thence, that we 
may live and not die.' "* 

Some eight or ten years after the settlement 
of Moses Chambers in this remote country, 

* R. B. McCabe, Esq. 



68 The History op 

William Bracken built a mill on the Blacklick, 
which was an incalculable advantage to the 
settlers. No more wearisome journeys to 
Conococheague ! Bracken's mill speedily be- 
came a cynosure to all within a radius of many 
miles, and the narrow paths which led to it 
might have been seen winding through the 
green forests in every direction. 

The settlement of Indiana county was very 
gradual. The savages made frequent inroads 
into the quiet retreats of the settlers, murdering 
or driving them oiF. We continue to quote, 
with some variations of language and order, 
from Mr. M'Cabe's valuable sketch. About 
the year 1774, Samuel Moorhead commenced 
building a mill on Stony Run, but before it was 
completed, the settlers were driven oft* by the 
Indians. They fled to what was then called 
the Sewickly settlement. This was called Dun- 
more' s war ; by some of the old settlers it was 
called the civil war. This war was brought 
about in this manner : In 1774, Lord Dunmore, 
of Virginia, set up the unfounded pretension 
that the western boundary of Pennsylvania did 
not include Pittsburg and the Monongahela 
river, and many settlers were encouraged to 
take up lands on Virginia warrants. He even 
took possession of Fort Pitt, by his agent, 



The Conemaugh. 59 

donolly, on the withdrawal of the royal troops 
by order of General Gage. Even General 
"Washington, who knew that country so well, 
and had taken up much land in it, entertained 
the idea probably at that date, that what are 
now the counties of Fayette, Greene, and 
Washington, were in Virginia. Some of these 
new settlers were of the worst class of frontier- 
men, and two of them, Cresap and Greathouse, 
were concerned in the barbarous murder of the 
family of Logan, ^'the friend of the white man." 
A bloody war upon the frontier was the conse- 
quence of these murders.* The settlers in 
Indiana county who were thus compelled to 
flee, lost their cattle and their crops. However, 
they returned to their improvements in the 
fall, and Moorhead completed his mill. This 
ivas perhaps the second mill erected w^ithin the 
bounds of what is now Indiana county. 

At this time the Indians were living on the 
Allegheny river. They had a town called 
Hickorytown, another called Mahoning, and 
another called Punxutawney. At their leisure, 
and they continued to have a good deal, they 
stole the white men's horses, and showed no 
symptoms of doubtful character as to their 
feelings towards their new neighbors. 

♦Day's Hist. Col., p. 33. 



60 The History of 

In 1776, when the blast of war, wide-spread 
and destructive, swept over the land, it pene- 
trated even the seclusion of this remote wilder- 
ness. The Indians again became openly hos- 
tile. No further improvements, it is believed, 
were attempted. The settler laid down the 
axe, and took up the rifle of the soldier. One 
courageous pioneer, John Thompson, erected 
a block-house some six miles northeast of the 
present town of Indiana, and here he continued 
to reside throughout all the troubles on the 
frontier. ^N'ot until after "Wayne's treaty, in 
1795, were any improvements of importance 
attempted. As late as 1800, not a single town 
existed in the county, if we except a few cabins 
that stood where Saltsburg now stands. — 
Greensburg, in Westmoreland county, was the 
nearest trading town.* 

Among the first villages in Indiana county 
was one called E"ewport, which stood on the 
right bank of the river, about a mile below the 
mouth of the Blacklick. When or by whom 
built is a mj^stery. It was a matter of tradition 
in our childhood. Old settlers affirm that it 
was in a state of decay more than fifty years 
since. We remember years ago to have seen 
a solitary house, tenantless and dilapidated, 

♦Day's Hist. Col., p. 377. 



The Conemaugh. 61 

still remaining. Of course it had tlie reputation 
-of being haunted. One who passed by it on a 
remarkably dark night afterward declared that 
he had seen a strange, murky light flaring 
through the sashless windows and the chinks 
in the walls. Doubtless the hobgoblins held 
their midnight revels there. Had that timid 
wayfarer drawn nigher he might have been 
blest with such a sight as that which greeted 
the eyes of Tarn O'Shanter hi the auld kirk of 
Alloway. 

After the old house had departed a lone 
ohimney continued to stand for years, not so 
tall and graceful as Pompey's Pillar, perhaps, 
y^t serving very well to mark the site of the 
abandoned hamlet. But even this last vestige 
has disappeared, and the stones of which it was 
constructed have been built into a fence by the 
owner of the land. In another generation 
l!^ewport will be as hard to locate as Tadmor 
m the Wilderness. 

The town of Indiana was laid out in 1805. 
A tract of 250 acres was granted for the 
purposes of a town by George Clymer. The 
turnpike from Kittanning to Ebensburg passes 
through the town. In 1856, the Blairsville 
Branch Eailroad was extended to this place. 
This has had the effect to cause great improve- 



6^ The History op 

ments to be made in it. The town has 
suddenly grown from being a small, out-of- 
the-way place, to be an important business 
point. It contains a fine court house, several 
elegant churches and hotels, a large number 
of first-class stores, and many elegant private 
residences. There is here also an extensive 
establishment for the manufacture of straw 
boards. The town is finely located in the 
midst of a superior agricultural district, and 
the people have ever been noted for their 
intelligence, morality, and enterprise. 

The manufacture ot salt has long been a 
prosperous business in this county. These 
salt-wells are principally to be found along the 
bank of the Conemaugh The existence of 
salt water in this section was indicated by the 
oozing of water, slightly brackish, through the 
fissures of the rocks. About the year 1813, 
when salt, in consequence of the war, was 
extravagantly high, Mr. William Johnston, an 
enterprising gentleman, determined to perforate 
the rock, and ascertain whether there was not 
some valuable fountain from whence all these 
oozings issued. He commenced operations on 
the bank of the Conemaugh, near the mouth 
of the Loyalhanna, and persevered until he had 
reached the depth of 450 feet, when he struck 



The Conematjgh. 63 

an abundant fountain, strongly impregnated 
with salt. He immediately proceeded to tu- 
bing the perforation to exclude the fresh 
water, erecting furnaces, pans, and other fix- 
tures, and was soon in the full tide of success- 
ful experiment, making about thirty bushels 
per day, all of which was eagerly purchased 
at a high price. 

Mr. Johnston's success induced others to em- 
bark in the business, most of whom were suc- 
cessful. Very soon the hitherto silent and sol- 
itary banks of the river were all bustle, life, and 
enterprise.* The canal which was afterwards 
made to pass through this region, brought the 
most available means of transportation to these 
works, and salt formed one of the chief staples 
of commerce of that section, and was carried to 
every part of the country. About the year 
1825, a salt well was sunk on the left bank of 
the river, a short distance above the mouth of 
the Blacklick, but, to the grief of all the par- 
ties interested, instead of finding a gushing 
fountain of salt water, the well poured out 
nothing but a stream of dirfy-lookmg oil, very 
offensive in its smell, and of no conceivable 
use whatever. The well was then covered up, 
and abandoned. This is now believed to have 

♦Hazard's Registe\, 1831. 



64 The History of ' 

been petroleum oil, and great pains have been 
taken lately to find the exact spot where this 
well was sunk, but so far in vain. 

Cambria county was taken from Somerset 
and Huntingdon by act of March 26th, 1804. 
Some have thought that the first settlements 
in the limits of this county were made about 
the vear 1789 ; but from the followins: incident 
it would seem that settlements were attempted 
bere some years before this : 

About December, 1777, a number of fami- 
lies came into the fort' (at Bedford) from the 
neighborhood of Johnstown. Amongst them 
were Samuel Adams, one Thornton and Brid- 
ges. After the alarm had somewhat subsided, 
they agreed to return to their property. A 
party started with pack horses, reached the 
place, and not seeing any Indians, collected 
their property and commenced their return. 
After proceeding some distance, a dog belong- 
ing to one of the party, showed signs of unea- 
siness, and ran back. Bridges and Thornton 
desired the others to wait whilst they would go 
back for him. They went back, and had pro- 
ceeded but two or three hundred yards, when 
a body of Indians, who had been lying on each 
side of the way, but who had been afraid to 
fire on account of the number of the whites, 



The Conemaugh. 65 

suddenly rose up and took them prisoners. 
The others, not knowing what detained their 
companions, went hack after them ; when they 
arrived near the spot the Indians fired on them, 
hut without doing any injury. The whites 
instantly turned and fled, excepting Samuel 
Adams, who took a tree and hegan to fight in 
the Indian style. In a few minutes, however, 
he was killed, but not without doing the same 
fearful service for his adversary. He and one 
of the Indians shot and killed each other at the 
same moment. When the news reached the 
fort, a party volunteered to visit the ground. 
When they reached it, although the snow had 
fallen ankle deed, they readily found the bodies 
of Adams and the Indian ; the foce of the latter 
having been covered by his companions with 
Adams' hunting shirt.* This bloody encoun- 
ter is said to have taken place on Sandy Run, 
about eight miles east of Johnstown. Author- 
ities differ, however, both as to the date of the 
occurrence, and the manner in which the actors 
in the tragedy made away with each other; 
some afiirming that it took place about the year 
1785, and that Adams and the Indian killed 
each other with their knives while fighting- 
round a white-oak tree.f 

♦Day's Hist. Col., pp. 122, 123 

t A. J. Kite's "Hand-Book of Johnstown, for 1856," p. 19. 



66 The Histoky op 

In the year 1789, the Rev. D. A. Gallitzin'^ 
directed his course to the Alleghany moun- 
tain, and found that portion of it which now 
constitutes Cambria county a perfect wilder- 
ness, almost without inhabitants or habita- 
tions, f He chose to settle where the village 
of Loretto now stands, and by his labors and 
munificence he attracted about him a little 
colony of pioneeis that has now grown to be a 
numerous and wealthy population. Among 
these early settlers were Captain Michael Ma- 
guire, Cornelius Maguire, Richard Nagle, 
William Dotson, Michael Rager, James Al- 
corn, John Storm, and others. Of these, 
Captain Maguire is believed to have been the 
first. He came here in 1790. The others fol- 
lowed soon after. These were the right kind 
of men to people a country, for one of them at 
least, Mr. Rager, is said to have left no less 
than twenty-seven children ! Under the aus- 
pices of these settlers, the country improved 
very rapidly. The first grist mill in the coun- 
try was built by Mr. John Storm. 

Robert L. Johnson, Esq., of Ebensburg, who 
is, perhaps, better acquainted with the early 
history of this county than any other man in 
it, and from whom we have borrowed the 

* See sketch of his life, Chap. X. 
t See Mountaineer, May 14th, 1840. 



The Conemaugh. 67 

principal part of the above items, in the year 
1840 published in the Ebensburg "Mountain- 
eer," of which he was editor, a series of arti- 
cles, from which we extract the following : 

"Previous to the year 1789, the tract of 
country which is now included within the 
limits of Cambria county was a wilderness. 
'Frankstown settlement,' as it was then called, 
was the frontier of the inhabited parts of Penn- 
sylvania east of the Alleghany mountains. 
I^one of the pioneers had yet ventured to ex- 
plore the eastern slope of the mountain. A 
remnant of savage tribes still prowled through 
the forests, and seized every opportunity of 
destroying the dwellings of the settlers, and 
butchering such of the inhabitants as were so 
unfortunate as to fall into their hands. The 
howling of the wolf, and the shrill screaming 
of the catamount or American panther, min- 
gled in nightly concert with the war-whoop of 
the savages. 

"The hardships endured by the first settlers 
are almost incredible. Exposed to the in- 
clemency of an Alleghany winter, against the 
rigor of which their hastily erected and scan- 
tily furnished huts afforded a poor protection, 
their sufferings were sometimes almost beyond 
endurance. Yet with the most unyielding 



68 The History op 

firmness did these men persevere, until they 
secured for themselves and their posterity the 
inheritance which the latter at present enjoy. 

''There was nothing that could be dignified 
with the name of road by which the early set- 
tlers might have an intercourse w^ith the settle- 
ments of Huntingdon county. A miserable 
Indian path led from the vicinity of where 
Loretto now stands, and intersected the road 
leading to FrankstoAvn, two or three miles this 
side of the Summit. 

"Many anecdotes are related by the citizens 
of Alleghen}^ township of the adventures of 
their heroic progenitors among the savage 
beasts, and the more savage Indians, which 
then infested the neighborhood. The latter 
were not slow to seize every opportunity of 
aggression which presented itself to their 
blood-thirsty minds, and consequently the in- 
habitants held not only property, but life itself, 
by a very uncertain tenure. The truth of the 
following story is vouched for by many of the 
most respectable citizens in Alleghany and 
Cambria townships, by one of whom it has 
kindly been furnished us for publication : A 
Mr. James Alcorn had settled in the vicinity 
of the spot where Loretto now stands, and 
had built a hut, and cleared a potato patch, 



The Conbmapgh. 69 

at some distance from it. The wife of Mr. 
Alcorn went an errand to see the potatoes, 
and did not return. Search was immediately 
made, but no trace could be found to lead to 
her discovery. Wliat became of her is to this 
day wrapped in mystery, and in all human 
probability, we shall remain in ignorance of 
her fate. It was generally supposed that she 
had been taken by the savages ; and it was 
even reported that she had returned several 
years after; but this story is not credited by 
any in the neighborhood." 

After Lor etto, Johnstown is believed to have 
been the first spot settled in Cambria county. 
Afew years afterward, about 1795, a number of 
Welsh emigrants located themselves upon the 
banks of the Blacklick, in this county. The 
spot which they chose was eminently adapted 
to the purposes of a village. The climate was 
salubrious ; the scenery around attractive ; the 
land in the neighborhood highly productive, 
while its interior was full of the most valuable 
minerals ; the water in the springs and streams 
was as pure and sparkling as the fount of 
Castaly, and the grand old woods on every 
side nodded their green heads in welcome to 
those early pioneers. The village was prop- 
erly laid out in streets and alleys, and bore the 



70 The History of 

name of Beulali. It was rapidly built up, and 
improvements of all kinds were inaugurated. 
Religious and literary societies were formed, 
^nd an enterprising disciple of Faust and 
Franklin established a newspaper in tlie little 
colony. This primitive sheet rejoiced in the 
name of the "Western Sky." It has since been 
rolled together as a scroll, and disappeared. 
The people of Beulah were an honest, ener- 
getic, independent race, and deserved to be, 
as they were, prosperous. 

Upon the organization of Cambria county, 
in 1804, Beulah contended with Ebensburg for 
the honor of being named the capital of the 
new county. That dignity was conferred upon 
the latter, and forthwith Beulah declined 
through chagrin and disappointment. She 
was never able to hold up her head afterward. 
Colonel Swank says : "That unfortunate tilt 
with Ebensburg 'fixed* beyond a peradventure 
the destiny of Beulah. Its Welsh burghers 
soon commenced to turn a longing look upon 
the county-seat; the implements of husbandry 
and the tools of the cunning workman were 
laid away to rust, and the price of real estate 
rapidly declined. Ere long Beulah was de- 
serted, and it remains deserted to this day. 
Where once stood the bustling little village, 



The Conemaugh. 71 

now only can be seen a single old-fashioned 
and very shaky wooden dwelling — a fitting- 
relic and a sorry monument of the departed 
greatness of Beulah. All else is gone. Even 
the streets, the 'busy streets' of Beulah — 
where are they?"* 

The history of Beulah presents us with a 
new edition of Goldsmith's "Deserted Vil- 
lage:" 

"Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn, 
Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn! 
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's hand is seen, 
And Desolation saddens all thy green." 

Ebensburg, two miles east of Beulah, was 
laid out by the E-ev. Morgan J. Rees, at nearly 
the same time with the latter. The ground 
upon which it is built was bought of the cele- 
brated Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia. The origi- 
nal settlers of Ebensburg, as of Beulah, were 
exclusively Welsh. It had a powerful rival in 
the latter town, until, by the act of 1805, it 
was directed to be the seat of justice for the 
county, which gave it an impulse that enabled 
it to far distance its haughty competitor. The 
great northern turnpike, running from Pitts- 
burg to Huntingdon, passes through the cen- 
tral part of the town. There is also a turnpike 
leading from it to the town of Indiana. 

* Editorial Brevities, p 9. 



72 The IIistoky op 

The town is pleasantly situated, almost on 
the summit of the Alleghany mountains. The 
eye can sweep in every direction over a vast 
expanse of woodland, field, and hill-top, to the 
far-ofi' horizon, that, like a circle, hems in the 
scene. The air is pure and healthful, though, 
in the winter, it is said, it is rather too bracing. 
Surrounding the town is some good farming 
land. 

Ebensburg contains a fine court house, and 
the usual county buildings, several good hotels, 
stores, shops, and some very fine private dwel- 
lings. The inhabitants are an intelligent, 
hospitable, free-hearted people, as the dwellers 
in mountain regions have ever been. A news- 
paper, called the "Cambria Gazette," was 
established here about the year 1816. There 
are now two papers published in the town, the 
"Democrat and Sentinel," and the "AUeghe- 
nian." The Ebensburg and Cresson Railroad, 
built in 1862, gave a stimulus to the business 
of the town, and caused considerable improve- 
ments to be made. The population is about 
1000. 

On Sunday evening, July 31st, 1842, one of 
the most atrocious murders ever committed 
was perpetrated in the neighborhood of this 
town. That eveninsc two men broke into the 



The Conemaugh. 73 

house of Mrs. Elizabeth Holder, a lone widow, 
who resided near Ebensbnrg, and who was 
thoufifht by some persons to have some money 
in her house. At their first attack, she 
screamed a few times very violently, and her 
next neighbor, a Mr. Eainey, who had retired 
to bed, heard her, and ran to her assistance. 
But ere he got there the struggle was all over, 
and she was no more ; and they were plunder 
ing the house. Mr. Rainey was afraid to 
venture into the house alone, and ran off for 
more assistance. Four or five men soon came 
along with him, and they arrived there just as 
the murderers were about leaving. The citi- 
zens endeavored to take them, and fired a rifle 
at one of them, but missed him. They made 
their escape, in the darkness of the night, into 
the neighboring woods.* They were after- 
wards arrested — one at Bellefonte and the 
other near Meadville, and were imprisoned at 
Ebensburg. They proved to be two brothers, 
named Bernard and Patrick Flanagan, Irish- 
men, from Centre county, this State. On 
Wednesday, the 6th of October of the same 
year, they were arraigned before Hon. Thomas 
White, President Judge, and Richard Levsda 
and John Murray, Associate Judges, of the 

♦Mountaineer, August, 1842, 



T4 The History of 

Court of Oyer and Terminer of this county. 
The trial continued daily, except Sunday, until 
the night of Saturday, the 15th. More than 
seventy witnesses were examined. The pros- 
ecution was conducted hy Thomas C. M'Dow- 
ell, Esq., the Attorney for the Commonwealth, 
and Messrs. John G. Miles, George Taylor, and 
John Fenlon, Esqs. The defense was sustained 
by Messrs. Michael Dan Magehan, Joshua F. 
Cox, John S. Rhey, and Michael Hasson, Esqs. 
The evidence was closed on the evening of 
Thursday, the 13th, when the addresses to the 
jury were opened by Mr. Taylor. The greater 
part of Friday was occupied by Mr. Ehey and 
Mr. Magehan on the part of the prisoners, and 
Mr. McDowell on the part of the Common- 
wealth. On the evening of Friday Mr. Cox 
commenced his speech for the accused, which 
lie finished at noon on Saturday. In the after- 
noon Mr. Miles summed up for the Common- 
wealth, and Judge White delivered the charge 
to the jury. The jury retired about eight 
o'clock the same evening, and after a short 
absence returned a verdict that the prisoners 
were guilty of murder in the first degree. 
Thus ended the most important and most 
exciting trial that has ever taken place in our 
county. 



The Conemaugh. 75 

The Flanagans were never hung. E Sorts 
were made to secure a new trial, and the 
Legislature and the Supreme Court were im- 
portuned on the subject, but a new trial was 
not granted. After a long delay, Governor 
Porter finally signed the death warrant, but on 
the evening before it was received in Ebens- 
burg the Flanagans escaped from jail! They 
have never since been heard of by the public* 

• Johnstown Tribune, July 28th, 1865. 



76 The History of 



CHAPTER IV. 



PUBLIC THOROUGHFAEES. 

During the earliest periods in tlie Mstory of 
the Conemaugh valley the only thoroughfare 
through it was the river itself and a narrow 
Indian path that led from the head-watera of 
the Juniata Creek to the Conemaugh near the 
present site of Johnstown. For some years 
after the first settlements were formed in the 
region of the Conemaugh, this path was still 
the only road leading from the valley across 
the mountains. The ancestors of many of the 
present inhabitants of this region came in by 
this Indian path. 

Very early in the present century, Smith's 
State Eoad and the Frankstown Eoad were 
constructed. These followed the course of the 
old path. This was an important enterprise 
for that early day. It opened up a wider in- 
tercourse with the more populous east. By 
this road large quantities of pig metal were 
brought from ''down east," some of which was 
manufactured into iron at a forge that had 
been erected in the embryo village of Johns- 



The Conemaugh. 77 

town, and some was carried in flat-boats by tbe 
river to Pittsburg. 

During the spring and fall f resbets, the busi- 
ness of flat-boating was very brisk. A trip 
to the distant town of Pittsburg, in those 
days, was a matter of nearly if not quite as 
much moment as to ISTew Orleans in these days 
of progress. The banks of the river were lined 
with almost unbroken forests, and the shrill 
cry of the wolf and the wild-cat alone awoke 
the echoes. No smiling villages were to be 
seen from the forks to the mouth of the Cone- 
maugh. 

About the years 1819 and 1820, a turnpike 
was constructed through several of the coun- 
ties lying in this valley. This turnpike led 
from Pittsburg to Huntingdon, and thence on 
to Philadelphia. The idea of building such a 
road over the mountains was deemed by the 
majority of the people of that day as simply 
preposterous ! They did not believe it could 
be done. We may think lightly of the sim- 
plicity of such people, and yet, gentle reader, 
fifty years from to-day our descendants will 
doubtless smile complacently at the vaunted 
^^improvements" and ^'progress" of theirgrand- 
fathers. The world is yet only in its infancy. 
The enterprise, however, was pushed forward 



78 The History op 

by the energetic men wlio had undertaken it, 
until it was completed. It was a well-made 
road, and was famous for many years. Towns 
and villages sprang up along its sides. It was 
the great highway between the east and the 
west, and with such admiration was it regarded 
for some time after its completion, that no- 
man's imagination dared soar so high as to 
picture a better means of communication. 

But the spirit of progress was abroad. It 
had long been a subject of consideration with 
the people of Pennsylvania how to connect the 
waters of the eastern with the waters of the 
western part of the State, so as to form a con- 
tinuous line of navigation between the two- 
sections of the country. It had occupied the 
thoughts of William Penn himself. As early 
as 1762, Dr. David Rittenhouse and the Rev.. 
William Smith had been employed to survey 
a route by which the same grand object migkt 
be reached. 

To carry out successfully the gigantic pro- 
ject of uniting the great eastern with the great 
western waters, was supposed to require an 
amount of capital, and of credit, beyond the 
control of any joint stock company ; and the 
pre-eminent power and credit of the State her- 
self were enlisted in the enterprise. Unfortu 
nately, to do this required legislative votes, and 



The Conemaugh. 79 

these votes were not to be had without extend- 
ing the ramifications of the system throughout 
all the counties whose patronage was necessary 
to carry the measure. In March, 1824, com- 
missioners were appointed to explore a route 
for a canal from Harrisburg to Pittsburg bj 
way of the Juniata and Conemaugh, and by 
way of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, 
Sinnemahoning, and the Allegheny — and also 
between the head-waters of the Schuylkill, by 
Mahanoy Creek, to the Susquehanna — with 
other projects. In 1825, canal commissioners 
were appointed to explore a number of routes 
in various directions through the State. In 
August, 1825, a convention of the friends of 
internal improvements, consisting of delegates 
from forty-six counties, met at Harrisburg, and 
passed resolutions in favor of "opening an entire 
and complete communication from the Sus- 
quehanna to the Allegheny and Ohio, and 
from the Allegheny to Lake Erie, by the near- 
est and best practicable route." The starting 
impulse being thus given, the great enterprise 
moved on, increasing in strength and magni- 
tude as each successive legislature convened ; 
and the citizens of every section were highly 
excited, not to say intoxicated, with local 
schemes of internal improvement.* 

♦Day's Hist. Col., page 47. 



80 The History op 

Between the years 1828 and 1833, the work 
upon the Pennsylvania Canal and Alleghany 
Portage Railroad was carried forward. The 
design was originally entertained of connecting 
the main Pittshurg route by continuing the 
canals with locks and dams as far as possible 
an both sides, and then tunnel through the 
mountain summit, a distance of four miles. 
This idea was soon abandoned. The survey 
for the railroad was made by Mr. Sylvester 
"Welch, and everything duly considered, it was 
a creditable enterprise. An old writer, in the 
warmth of his admiration, says: "Mr. Welch 
has immortalized his name by a work equal in 
importance and grandeur to any in the world. 
He has raised a monument to the intelligence, 
enterprise, and public spirit of Pennsylvania, 
more honorable than the temples and pyramids 
of Egypt, or the triumphant arches and col- 
umns of Rome. They were erected to com- 
memorate the names of tyrants, or the battles 
of victorious chieftains, while these magnifi- 
cent works are intended to subserve the inter- 
ests of agriculture, manufacture, and com- 
merce — to encourage the arts of peace — to ad- 
vance the prosperity and happiness of the 
whole people of the United States — to strength- 
en the bonds of the Union."* 

* Hist. Six Counties, p. 580. 



The Conemaugh. 81 

The railroad lay for the greater part in Cam- 
bria county. Its western terminus was at 
Johnstown. Its length was thirty-six miles, 
terminating to the eastward at Hollidaysburg. 
It consisted of a series of planes and levels. 
There were ten planes, numbered in their or- 
der trom the west towards the east. The first 
plane was 1,607.74 feet in length, and had an 
elevation of 150 feet. Plane number two was 
1,760.43 feet long, and had an elevation of 
132.40 feet. Plane number three was 1,480.25 
feet long, and had an elevation of 130.50 feet. 
Plane number four, was 2,194.93 feet in length, 
and had an elevation of 187.86 feet. Plane 
number five was 2,628.50 feet long, and had 
an elevation of 201.64 feet. This brings us to 
the summit of the Alleghany mountains, after 
which we descend upon the other side. Plane 
number six was 2,713.85 feet in length, and 
had a depression of 266.50 feet. Plane num- 
ber seven was 2,655.01 feet long, and had a 
depression of 260.50 feet. Plane number eight 
was 3,116.92 feet in length, and had a depres- 
sion of 307.60 feet. Plane number nine was 
2,720.80 feet long, and had a depression of 
189.50 feet. Plane number ten was 2,295.61 
feet in length, and had a depression of 180.52 
feet. 



82 The History of 

The inclination of some of the levels was as 
great as that of some of the planes : for in- 
stance, that of level number two was one hun- 
dred and eighty-nine feet. This, however, was 
srained in a distance of over thirteen miles, so 
that it was merely a light grade. At the top 
of each of the planes were stationary engines^ 
by means of which the ascending and descend- 
ins: trains of trucks and cars were raised or 
lowered by ropes of twisted wires to which 
they were attached. This kind of railroading 
in our days would be considered entirely too 
slow; yet at that day the construction of the 
old Portage railroad, as we have seen, was 
considered a grand triumph of science and 
skill. Sometimes, it is true, the ropes or the 
couplings of the cars would break, when all 
would run pell-mell to the bottom of the plane 
to the destruction of life and property ; and 
so, too, in modern days, trains sometimes run 
oft the track or into each other to the same 
efiect. 

At the top of plane number one, a tunnel 
perforated the hill, a distance of eight hundred 
and seventy feet. It is also twenty feet in 
bight. The tunnel is still remaining, as it will 
likely remain for ages to come. It is now not 
used for any purpose whatever. A few miles 



The Conemaugh. 83 

beyond the tunnel a beautiful viaduct, a single 
arch of eighty feet span, crossed the river at 
the Horseshoe Bend. The track of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad now lies upon it. The river 
here makes a singular curve. It runs a dis- 
tance of three miles around a point of land, 
which, at this place, is scarcely more than 
three hundred feet across ! The cost of the 
railroad, including the stationary engines, and 
80 torth, exceeded $1,500,000. 

The Western Division of the Pennsylvania 
canal, extending from Johnstown to Pittsburg, 
was rapidly pushed to its completion. This 
division was nearly one hundred and five miles 
in length, and had a descent by lockage of four 
hundred and seventy feet. On it are nine 
dams, seventy locks, and fifteen aqueducts.* 
ITine miles below Blairsville, the canal passes 
through a tunnel eight hundred and seventeen 
feet long.f At the western end of the tunnel, 
the canal crosses the Conemaugh upon a mag- 
nificent stone aqueduct. The view of this 
aqueduct and the tunnel perforating the rugged 
hill-side, is quite pleasing to the traveler 
passing up the canal. Another tunnel of 

* See Canal Com. Report for 1851, p. 15. 

t Hist. Six Counties, p. 602. In Day's Hist. Col., page 375, 
this tunnel is said to be over 1,000 feet long. This, we conceive 
to be an error. 



84 The History op 

about the same length, pierces this hill but a 
few rods above the old one. This has been 
made for the ^N'orth-Western railroad. The 
cost of making this canal was $2,964,882. 

The scenery along this portion of the public 
works, winding as it does along the Cone- 
maugh, is varied and beautiful. It passes 
through deep gorges, where dense primeval 
forests look down and see themselves in the 
waters below ; through broad cultivated fields, 
where the flash of the sickle and the merry 
songs of the gleaners are seen and heard ; by 
cosy farm-houses, around which at the closing 
in of day the lowing of herds, the tinkling of 
sheep-bells, and the gabbling and quacking of 
geese and ducks make domestic music ; along 
by thriving towns and quiet, shady villages, 
where peace, prosperity, and contentment have 
their cherished abode. The Pennsylvania 
Railroad, the Western Pensylvania Railroad, 
formerly called the E'orth- Western Railroad, 
and the Allegheny Valley Railroad, have now 
supplanted this portion of the old main line, 
and opened up vast resources unthought of 
before. 

The work of making the canal from Pitts- 
burg to Johnstown was completed, or nearly 
so at least, as early as 1831 or 1832. The rail- 



The Conemaugh. 85 

road was not finished for some time afterward. 
That portion of the canal between Blairsville 
and Johnstown was hut little used until after 
the completion of the railroad ; but the section 
leading to Pittsburg from Blairsville was kept 
in constant and successful operation. The 
principal part of the merchandise brought 
from the west was landed at Blairsville from 
the canal boats and conveyed in wagons to 
Hollidaysburg, where it was again placed in 
boats and taken on to Philadelphia. That 
from the east was brought over from Holli- 
daysburg to Blairsville in the same manner, 
and thence passed down the canal in boats. 
Packet boats started daily from Blairsville and 
Pittsburg, the passage consuming about thirty 
hours.* 

The Portage railroad was completed, or at 
least so far completed, as to permit trains to 
pass over its entire length, in the fall of 1833. 
An old newspaper records the first trip of this 
kind as follows : 

*'0n Tuesday last, two Cars, one of them a 
new one built at Pittsburg, and intended for a 
lumber Car, left the basin at Conemaugh,t and 
arrived at the summit. They had on board 
Messrs. "White, Wain, Hoopes, and Atwood, 

* See a Letter in the Philadelphia Gazette, June, 1833. 
t That is, Johnstown 



86 The History of 

four of the Philadelphia Delegates to the late 
Warren convention, tha Superintendent, En- 
gineers and a number of the Contractors and 
Citizens. They arrived at the Summit in the 
afternoon and were greeted by the cheers of a 
number of the citizens of Hollidaysburg, who 
had arrived in Cars from that place, and a 
number of the citizens of this county, who had 
convened to view the interesting spectacle. 
After partaking of a sumptuous dinner, pre- 
pared by Mr. Denlinger, in his large and com- 
modious house at the intersection of the 
Turnpike and Kailroad, the Passengers pro- 
ceeded in the Cars to Hollidaysburg, where, 
we are happy to hear, they arrived safely."* 
The completion of the road was a great event 
at that time, and on the tenth day of Decem- 
ber, 1833, a meeting was held at the house of 
Mr. Denlinger, *'for the purpose of making 
preparatory arrangements for suitably cele- 
brating the completion of the Alleghany Por- 
tage Rail Road."t Of this meeting C. Garber, 
Esq., was chairman, and J. C. Graham, secre- 
tary. Of the celebration itself, we have no 
report. 

Upon the opening of navigation in the spring 
of 1834, the railroad was in complete working 

* Ebensburg Sky, Nor. 28, 1833. 
+ Ibid, December 19th, 1833. 



The Conemaugh. 87 

order, and business upon it and the canal 
opened briskly. In May, of that year, C. F. 
Dixon, of Johnstown, gives notice that he has 
placed a ^'commodious passenger car" on the 
railroad, to start every other day from Johns- 
town and Hollidaysburg, and assures the public 
that the trip can be made in eight hours, and 
that "every attention will be paid to the com- 
fort and convenience of passengers." He 
further says, "There will be another car placed 
on the road early next week. The cars will 
then start every day from both towns at 7 
o'clock A. M."* That business upon the line 
was flourishing for a new enterprise may be 
seen in the fact that the amount of tolls received 
at Hollidaysburg and Johnstown for the week 
ending May 24th, 1834, was resp^tively 
$1503.53, and $1851.65.t 

The next achievement of that progressive 
age was one of so striking a character that it 
is strange it did not excite more curiosity and 
inquiry. In an old newspaper we find the 
following account : "The Western Division of 
the Pennsylvania canal has been navigated by 
steam! Last week a steam canal boat (the 
Adeline) came up from Pittsburg, and went on 
to Johnstown. She returned on Sunday morn- 

* Ebensburg Sky, Mar 15, 1834. 

t Pennsylvania Reporter, May 30, 1834. 



88 The Histoey of 

ing with a load of near 40,000 lbs. of blooms, 
passing tbis place very handsomely, at the rate 
of rather more than three miles an hour ; and 
making less wave in the w^ater than a boat 
drawn by horses. She is propelled by means 
of a fixture of peculiar construction, which 
works in a recess of the stern entirely under 
water. The enterprise of the proprietors is 
worthy of commendation, as well as the hope 
that it may prove profitable to them."* Ex- 
cept this, there seems never to have been a 
thought indulged of navigating the canal by 
steam. 

The first trip made by a boat over the moun- 
tains is said to have been made in October, 
1834. Jesse Chrisman, from the Lackawanna, 
loaded his boat, named the "Hit or Miss," 
with his family, furniture, live-stock, and all, 
and started for Illinois. At Hollidaysburg, 
where he intended to sell his boat, it was sug- 
gested by John Daugherty, of the Eeliance 
Transportation line, that the whole concern 
could be safely hoisted over the mountain, 
and set afloat again in the canal. A car cal- 
culated to bear the novel burden was prepared, 
the boat was taken out of the water and placed 
upon it, and at noon of the same day it was 

♦Blairsville Record, June 11, 1834 



The Conemaugh. 89 

started on its way over tlie rugged Alleglianies, 
All tills was done without disturbing the occu- 
pants of the boat. They rested at night on the 
top of the mountain, like I^oah's ark on Ara- 
rat, and the next morning they descended into 
the valley of the Mississippi and sailed for St. 
Louis.* 

The construction of the old main line was 
certainly a magnificent achievement. It opened 
up a highway between the east and the west^ 
and brought the cis- and ^7Yr/25-Alleghanians 
into closer communion. It was a highway 
proportioned to the progress and wants of the 
people. It perhaps did more for the develop- 
ment of the western country than any other 
agency whatever. The amount of business 
transacted upon it for those times was im- 
mense. For instance, during the year ending 
]N"ovember 30th, 1851, which may be consid- 
ered a medium year — neither so good as the 
best nor so poor as the worst, the receipts at 
Johnstown alone, amounted to §140,17T,15.t 

The canal was supplied by the waters of the 
Conemaugh and Stony Creek. To accom- 
plish this, dams were thrown across these 
streams ; that across the Conemaugh just at 
the upper end of Johnstown, and that across 

* History of the Six Counties, p. 580, 
t See Canal Commissioners' Report, 1851. 



II 



90 The History of 

the Stony Creek one mile and a half above 
that town. To convey the water from the 
latter to the canal, a trench was dug along the 
right bank of the stream, and thence across 
the upper end of the town to the canal basin. 
This trench is still known as the "feeder.'* 
The water from the dam on the Conemaugh 
could be turned at once into the basin through 
gates constructed for that purpose. 

Yet business on the canal suffered more or 
less every year from the want of water. To 
remedy this defect it was resolved at length to 
build a reservoir on one of the mountain 
branches of the Conemaugh, that would hold 
a vast quantity of water in reserve against time 
of need. A suitable location was found on the 
South Fork, about ten miles from Johnstown. 
A reservoir similar to that contemplated had 
been made on the Juniata division of the main 
line, and had established the fact that navi- 
gation could be maintained by this means in 
the dryest of seasons. 

The Legislature, in 1836, made an appropri- 
ation of thirty thousand dollars towards this 
object.* It was not commenced, however, 
until the year 1838. The original appropria- 
tion was found to be insufficient, and other 

* Act of February 18th, 1836. 



The Coubmaugh. 91 

Bums were subsequently voted. The reservoir 
covered an area of six hundred acres, and was 
calculated to contain four hundred and eighty 
millions cubic feet of available water. This 
would be sufficient to fill a canal five hundred 
and sixty miles long, thirty feet wide, and five 
feet deep. If filled into hogshead thirty inches 
in diameter, and standing side by side, they 
would form a row that would more than en- 
compass the earth ; or, if difi'used in the form 
of rain, it would be sufficient to water all of 
Pennsylvania west of the Alleghanies ! The 
work was completed in 1853, at a cost of sev- 
eral hundred thousand dollars. It was found 
to answer the purpose for which it had been 
constructed. In the summer of 1862, the dam 
or embankment of the reservoir gave way, 
precipitating a flood upon the valley. Fortu- 
nately, however, it contained but a compara- 
tively small quantity of water at the time, the 
escape of which had been going on for some 
days previous to the general crevasse, so that 
but little damage resulted. 

In the year 1846, the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company was incorporated. The obj ect of the 
company was to open a new and improved 
thoroughfare between the two chief cities of 
Pennsylvania — ^Philadelphia and Pittsburg, 



92 The History op 

and tlius supply an important link in tlie chain 
of intercommunication between tlie east and 
tlie west. The Portage had served its purpose 
nobly, well ; but the progressive spirit of the 
age had voted it a bore, and sought a more 
rapid and convenient transit of the Alleghe- 
nies than by the old-fashioned planes and sta- 
tionary engines. 

Much labor, expense, and ingenuity were 
employed in finding a route by which this ob- 
ject might be accomplished. At length suc- 
cess crowned their efforts. The survey wound 
up the eastern slope of the mountains in a very 
circuitous manner, and crossed the summit at 
a point but a short distance from the Portage 
Railroad. It here passes through a tunnel 
three thousand seven hundred feet in length, 
at an elevation of three thousand feet above 
the sea. This tunnel, perhaps one of the 
greatest pieces of work in the United States, 
was completed in 1853. Descending the west- 
ern slope of the mountains by the valley of the 
Conemaugh to Johnstown, the railroad con- 
tinues to follow that river as far down as the 
Blairsville Intersection, where they diverge. 
This improvement was completed in 1853, and 
is now one of the safest, best finished, best 
furnished, and best managed railroads in the 



The Conbmaugh. 93 

Union. It has annihilated time and space. 
The passenger may eat his supper in Pittsburg, 
sleep securely and comfortably through the 
night, and wake up in time for his breakfast 
in Philadelphia the next morning. People 
don't live so long as Methuselah now-a-days ; 
and they don't need to. It took Methuselah 
all his time, we dare say, to get through the 
world by the "slow coaches" of that period. 

The construction of this young rival at his 
side infused new life into the almost inanimate 
body of the old Portage. His was the inspi- 
ration of the old plow-horse that kicks up his 
heels with a few extra flourishes as the two- 
year old colt capers about him. During the 
legislative session of 1850, an act was passed 
authorizing a survey to be made for a new 
road that would avoid the inclined planes. 
This was no easy matter. "It required great 
skill, energy, and patience, to find two routes 
over these mountains without inclined planes. 
But after an immense amount ot labor, and 
with many windings, both objects were accom- 
plished. These roads cross each other a num- 
ber of times, some places at the same eleva- 
tion, and other places at an elevation diflfering 
as much as thirty feet."* 

* S. B. McCormick, Esq. 



94 The History op 

The work on the new road was begun in 
1851, and pushed forward to its completion in 
1855. It crossed the mountain through a 
tunnel some three thousand feet in length 
about half a mile south of the tunnel on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad. The cost of this new 
work was over one million dollars. By doing 
away with the stationary engines, a vast num^ 
her of supernumerary employees, and so forth^ 
it was calculated to reduce the annual expense 
to the Commonwealth nearly one hundred 
thousand dollars. It was at the same time 
put on something like a footing of competition 
with its upstart rival. It was somewhat longer 
than the Pennsylvania Railroad, but had the 
advantage of a lighter grade in ascending the 
mountain.* 

By an act of the legislature of 1852, the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company was author- 
ized to extend the Blairsville Branch railroad 
to the town of Indiana, in Indiana county. 
This railroad is about nineteen miles in length, 
counting from its junction with the main road, 
or about sixteen, reckoning from Blairsville. 

* The propriety of constructing a new road over the mountains 
was speculated upon at a very early period. In the session of 
1836, the sum of two thousand dollars was appropriated by a 
resolution of the legislature to survey a route across the AUegha- 
nies with a view to avoid the inclined planes on the Portage 
railroad. — See Pamphlet Laws, page 851. 



The Conemaugh. 95 

It was completed in 1855. Its direction is 
nearly due north. It lies through a fertile 
and well cultivated region of country, where 
the advantages arising from its construction 
have been mutual. Perhaps no portion of 
railroad of equal length along the entire line 
has "paid better" than the Indiana Branch. 
Two trains run daily to and from Indiana, 
connecting with trains on the main road. 

In 1853, the Korth Western Kailroad com- 
pany was incorporated by act of Legislature, 
This road has one of its termini at Blairsville ; 
the other was designed to be at !N'ewcastle. 
At present (1865) it has been completed as far 
as Freeport. It is in running order to that 
point, and trains are making daily trips to and 
fro. This road was begun in 1854, and some 
considerable progress was made. But difficul- 
ties of some kind arose, and work upon the 
improvement was suspended. It so remained 
for a number of years, when, in 1863, it passed 
into the hands of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
company. With their accustomed energy 
and promptness the Avork was recommenced^ 
and since then has been pushed towards its 
completion. Its direction is westerly, and it 
crosses the Conemaugh a number of times ia 
its course. It lies through a rich, productive 



96 The History op 

region, which it is calculated to develop to a 
surprising degree. 

In the year 1859, a company was incorpor- 
ated to construct a railroad from Cresson, on 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, to Ebensburg, the 
county seat of Cambria county. In 1861, it 
was leased, yet unfinished, by the Pennsylvania 
Hailroad company for the short term of nine 
hundred and ninety-nine years! This ought 
to bring us round to about the time predicted 
when Miller's saints shall "blow up the globe." 
In the hands of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
company the Ebensburg branch was speedily 
completed. Trains began running upon it in 
1862. It passes through one of the most fer- 
tile districts of the "Mountain County," which 
it is greatly benefiting. 

For many years prior to 1857, the question 
of selling the Main Line of Public Works of 
Pennsylvania had been mooted, both in the 
legislature and out of it. But as _^time passed 
on the question attracted more and more at- 
tention. Public sentiment was nearly evenly 
balanced on the subject, and strong parties 
ranged themselves on each side. Forthwith 
a war of words ensued. 

Those who favored the sale of the line in- 
sisted that it was a fountain-head of corruption 



The Conemaugh. 97 

and fraud, and was used as an electioneering 
machine by whatever political party happened 
to hold the reins of power. It was charged 
that the management of the public improve- 
ments had been proverbially bad, and instead 
of being a source of revenue to the Common- 
wealth, they had only been a source of over- 
whelming expense. The acts of successive 
legislatures show that there were some 
grounds of reason for this charge. Leeches 
and vampires in large numbers were said to 
have fastened upon its enteebled corpus, where 
they clung with all their native tenacity. It 
absorbed yearly appropriations of hundreds of 
thousands of dollars as easily and gratuitously 
as a sponge absorbs water. Indeed, the old 
main line was everywhere known as the "old 
State Robber." Hosts of supernumeraries 
were employed for no other reason apparently 
than because they had served the "party,*' 
and were entitled to a "feed" out of the pub- 
lic manger. Even the ass knoweth his mas- 
ter's crib. 

The other party, while admitting the mis- 
management that had brought the public 
works into such disrepute, denied that this was 
owing to any defect in the system. They be- 
lieved that by a proper administration of the 



98 The History op 

affairs of the line it would prove to be a source 
of profit to the Commonwealth. Vast sums of 
money had been expended in constructing it 
in the first place, and in making it keep pace 
with the march of improvement afterward, 
and it was now in a better condition to answer 
the expectations and wants of the public than 
ever. They contended against the policy of 
surrendering into the hands of a powerful 
corporation the only hope of competition — 
thus giving to that corporation an exclusive 
monopoly of a large and important branch of 
industry. Such was the material out of which 
the two parties fashioned their "thunder." 

During the session of 1857, however, a bill 
was passed by the legislature authorizing the 
sale of the main line. The same year it was 
purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad com- 
pany, as everybody foresaw it would be. The 
sum paid was $7,500,000. 

Some parts of the line were kept in running 
order for short periods of time after their 
sale ; but now all that part lying in the Cone- 
maugh valley has been destroyed and aban- 
doned. Whatever advantage the sale of this 
line may have been to the State at large, it 
must be conceded that it was a direful stroke 
to the prosperity of this region. What were 



The Conemaugh. 99 

flouriBhing towns and villages before, are now 
dilapidated and almost depopulated. Grass 
and thistles are now growing up in their 
streets, and they soon will have gone the way 
of Beulah and Newport. The bats now in- 
habit the palaces of the Caesars. Even those 
places which were not entirely blighted, were 
made to sufler. Business fell off, and real es- 
tate everywhere along the line depreciated in 
value. 



CHAPTER V. 



JOHJ^STOWIsr AND ITS SUBURBS. 

Johnstown is the metropolis of the Cone- 
man gh valley. It is sitnated on the point of 
land between the Conemaugh and Stony 
Creek, at their junction. Its location is very 
similar to that of Pittsburg. The ground 
upon which the chief part of the town is built 
is nearly a dead level; there being scarcely 
fall enough in any direction to answer the 
purposes of proper drainage. In military par- 
lance, Johnstown is "commanded" by high 
hills. It lies in the narrow basin between the 
Alleghanies and the Laurel Hill. Lofty 
bights girt it round about on every side. 
There is no good farming lands in the imme- 
diate vicinity of Johnstown ; but the sur- 
rounding hills are "full" of valuable miner- 
als, to which the town owes its importance. 

Conrad Weiser, Interpreter of the Province 
of Pennsylvania, seems to have been the first 
white man that ever set foot upon the site of 
Johnstown. It is true that ere his time white 
vcaptives may have passed over this spot on 



The Conemaugh. 101 

their melancholy way to the western wilds; 
but if so, we have no account of them. In 
1748, Weiser was despatched with a large pre- 
sent to the Indians on the Ohio, to confirm 
them in their allegiance to the British cause. 
George Croghan, a celebrated frontiersman of 
that period, was sent along to conduct the ex- 
pedition through the Indian country. 

On the eleventh day of August, 1748, the 
little party of Weiser left Berks county on 
their important mission. After traveling near- 
ly two hundred miles, August 22d, they " cross- 
ed the Allegheny hills, and came to the Clear 
Fields." The day following they "came to 
the Showonese Cabbins," a distance of thirty- 
four miles. Here they met about twenty of 
the horses sent by Croghan to convey the 
goods from Frankstown. By the "Showonese 
Cabbins," we believe is indicated the present 
site ot Johnstown ; as it is well known that a 
Shawanese town once stood here. The dis- 
tance from one point to another, as he names 
them, considering the route they probably 
pursued, which it is likely was not far from a 
straight line, would just about bring them to 
this place. On the 25th, they crossed what he 
calls the "Kiskeminetoes Creek," by which 
he means the lower Conemaugh, and came to 
the Allegheny river, then called the Ohio, at 



102 The History of 

the distance of fifty-eight miles from the 
"Showonese Cabbius." 

Ten years later, in i^ovember, 1T58, Chris- 
tian Frederick Post, on a message from the 
government to the Indians on the Ohio, also 
passed through this place. Post came over 
from Eaystown, now Bedford. While coming 
through Somerset county, he found to his dis- 
may, near Stony Creek, as he says, "one of 
the worst roads that ever was traveled." — 
Some people believe that the road supervisors 
haven't been along that route since. On the 
11th of November he came to an old Shawa- 
nese town, called Kickenapawling. This vil- 
lage is said to have occupied the spot upon 
which Johnstown now stands, and was, then, 
identical with the "Showonese Cabbins" ot 
Weiser. At the period of Post's visit it seems 
to have been long abandoned, for he speaks 
of it distinctly as the old Shawanese town, and 
further says, that it was so grown up with 
"weeds, briars and bushes," that they could 
scarcely get through. The following lines 
from Campbell are perhaps descriptive of the 
village as it appeared to Post: 

"All ruined and wild is their roofless abode, 
And lonely the dark raven's sheltering tree; 
And traveled by few is the grass covered road, 
Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trodo 
To his hills that encircle the sea."* 



The Conemaugh. 103 

Post spells the name Heckkeknepalin. This 
is undoubtedly a lapsus pennae, or a mis-print. 
We think the correct name is Keckkekne- 
palin. By what authority it has been changed 
to Kickenapawling, we are at a loss to tell. 
Probably the name Keckkeknepalin was given 
to the village some time subsequent to the 
visit of Weiser, in honor of a chief of that 
name who probably afterward lived here. — 
This chief was a conspicuous person during 
the French and Indian troubles of 1750 — 
1760. He was the leader of a gang of Indi- 
ans that made an onslaught on the settlers 
near Penn's Creek, on the sixteenth of Octo- 
ber, 1755, killing fifteen, and taking prisoners 
ten more, whom they carried to Kittanning. 
We also find his name among the "Captains 
and Councillors" who delivered a speech to 
Post, at Cuscusking, September 3, 1758. His 
partners in this were King Beaver, Delaware 
George, Kill Buck, and others. Post also 
mentions a visit which he received from him 
at Old French Town, at the mouth of Beaver 
Creek, on the seventeenth of !N"ovember of the 
same year. These facts lead us to the opinion 
that Keckkeknepalin and his people had mi- 
grated to that section some time before. 

On leaving Kickenapawling, Post and his 



104 The History of 

companions ascended a very steep hill, per- 
haps what is now called "Benshoof s Hill," 
and the horse of Thomas Hickman 'Humbled 
and rolled down the hill like awheel," where- 
upon Thomas grew angry, and declared he 
would go no farther with them; but not being 
able to find another road, and perhaps not 
liking the hospitalities of Kickenapawling, he 
very wisely reconsidered his resolution, and 
rejoined the party shortly afterward, feeling, 
as the ingenuous Post says, "a little ashamed." 
He adds, however, that they were "glad to 
see him." This unfortunate fellow would 
seem to have been born to bad luck. [Post 
relates another little mishap that befell him 
on the 9th of September, 1758 : "We took a 
little foot-Path," says he, "hardly to be seen, 
we lost it and went through thick Bushes till 
we came to a mire, which we did not see till 
we were in it, and Tom Hickman fell in and 
almost broke his leg." 

In 1791 or 1792, Joseph Johns, an enterpris- 
ing German, who had not the fear of the red 
men before his eyes, strayed over to the an- 
cient village of Kickenapawling. He seems 
to have liked the locality better than the for- 
mer inhabitants did who had abandoned it so 
many years before, for he determined to settle 



The Conemaugh. 105 

liere. He did more than this; he determined 
to found a city on the ruins of Kickenapawl- 
iug. Perhaps visions of its future greatness 
and prosperity filled up the vacuity of many a 
lonely hour ! 

As this was the head of navigation to those 
seeking the western waters, Mr. Johns was 
not long the only settler in this wild region. 
Other hardy spirits soon joined him here. 
The whole territory hereabouts was then 
known as the '' Conemaugh country." By 
1800, the number of settlers here was so nu- 
merous that Mr. Johns proceeded to carry out 
what we fancy was his darling project: to es- 
tablish a town; for, i^ovember third, of that 
year, he filed a charter in Somerset describing 
and legalizing the town of '• Conemaugh," as 
he chose to christen it. The venerable Abra- 
ham Morrison, Esq.,'^ of Johnstown, then a 
practicing attorney in the town of Somerset, 
was a witness to this document. 

From this charter we find that the town was 
then comprised in '-one hundred and forty-one 
lots, ten streets, six alleys, and one Market 
Square." Johns conveyed to the use of the 
public, ""One acre for a Burying ground," 
''the square on Main street containing the 

*Died February, 1865. 



106 The History of 

Lots 'No. Forty-nine, Fifty, Fifty-one, & 
Fifty-two for a County Court House and other 
public buildings," and declares that "all that 
piece of ground called the point, laying be- 
tween the said town and the Junction of the 
two rivers or creeks aforesaid, shall be reserved 
for commons and public amusements for 
the use of the said Town and its future in- 
habitants for ever." Among the earliest set- 
tlers in the town of Conemaugh were Peter 
Goughenour, Joseph Francis, and Ludwig 
"Wissinger. The descendants of Goughenour 
and Wissinger still live in the neighborhood. 

The following incident we find in A. J. 
Hite's little volume entitled "The Hand-Book 
of Johnstown." It describes the final exit of 
the last of the Shawanese that figure in the 
Mstory of Kickenapawling: 

" Long after the white man had opened his 
lodge on the 'fiat,' a solitary Indian remain- 
ed, who spent his time in hunting, and fishing 
along the rivers contiguous. He is described 
as having been a venerable looking man, and 
of a peaceful disposition, neither interfering 
with the affairs of the whites nor encroaching 
on their property, but who quietly set his 
traps for beaver or sat by the stream at his fav- 
orite fishing-grounds, deeply wrapt in thought. 



The Conemaugh. 107 

One day, while paddling peaceably in his ca- 
noe, near town, a rifle, in the hands of a ren- 
egade white man, was fired from a neighboring 
thicket, and the old man fell dead into the 
stream. 

"The scene of this tragic occurrence was on 
the Conemaugh, opposite where the Red Mill 
now stands, fronting Kingston's Gap." 

Though Johns had conferred the name of 
"Conemaugh" on the new village, it gradu- 
ally changed to Johnstown. The infant settle- 
ment slowly but steadily increased in size and 
importance. A road was cut through the wil- 
derness to Frankstown, on the eastern side of 
the mountains. This road was the great trans- 
Alleghany route for many years. 

The early history of Conemaugh was marked 
with but few incidents which have been 
thought worthy of preservation. It is record- 
ed that in 1808, and again in 1816, the village 
was overflowed with water, and the inhabi- 
tants were obliged to fly to the hills for safety. 
About the year 1812, the first grist-mill was 
erected. A small forge was also put up about 
the same time. The manufacture of iron was 
thus an early pursuit in Johnstown. The 
transportation of this article was long per- 
formed by means of pack-horses and mules. 



108 The History of 

At a little later period this business was car- 
ried on in rafts and flat-boats. These craft 
made the trip from Conemaugh to Pittsburg, 
then a thriving young city, whenever the 
stage of water was favorable. In 1816, the 
iirst keel-boat was built by Isaac Proctor, one 
of the earliest merchants in the village. It 
was built on the bank of the Stony Creek, near 
the site of the Union Graveyard. One or two 
other iron forges were subsequently erected. 
One of these is known to have stood on the 
bank of the Stony Creek, a little below the 
place where Bedford street comes out upon 
the creek, and another on the Conemaugh, 
near the spot where McConaughy's steam tan- 
nery now stands. Mr. Ilite says, that while 
digging the race for this last forge, old fire- 
brands, pieces of blankets, an earthen smoke- 
pipe, and other Indian relics were discovered 
twelve feet below the surface of the earth. 

Broken occasionally by such slight ripples 
as these, the stream of time in ancient Cone- 
maugh glided calmly along until the year 
1828. In that year the long debated public 
improvements were commenced. We have 
treated of this matter at length in another 
chapter. Johnstown, for by this name the 
village was universally known, fortunately for 



The Conbmaugh. 109 

herself lay just where it was necessary to 
make the conuecting point between the canal 
and the railroad. This fact gave to Johns- 
town some importance. A large canal-basin 
was dug, and depots, machine-shops, ware- 
houses, and all the other paraphernalia be- 
longing to the termini of the railroad and 
canal were erected. In the course of a few 
years the line was completed, and the arrival 
and departure of the boats and railroad trains 
imparted a degree of life and activity to the 

town. 

In the year 1831, the town was incorporated 
by the name of Conemaugh. It then had 
a population of about seven hundred souls. 
By 1840, it had increased to 912; 1850, to 
1269 ; 1860, to 4185, and at this time, 1865, it 
cannot be far from 6000. In 1846, a furnace 
was erected on the bluif just across the canal 
from where the railroad station now stands. 
It furthered materially the prosperity of the 
town. In 1864, it was completely torn down, 
having lain idle for some years immediately 
preceding. About 1830, the first foundry in 
Johnstown was built by Sylvester "Welsh, the 
chief engineer of the Portage Railroad. It 
stood upon the ground now occupied by the 
store of Wood, Morrell & Co. In 1831 or 



110 The History op 

1832, a new firm became proprietors of the 
concern, and a new foundry was built on what 
is known as the "Island," the new enterprise 
supplanting its predecessor. This foundry 
passed through different hands, until, in 1864, 
it came into the possession of the Johnstown 
Mechanical Works Company. At about 12 
o^clock on Tuesday night, June 5th, 1865, the 
foundry was discovered to be on lire, and in a 
few hours this venerable enterprise lay in 
ashes and smouldering ruins on the ground. 
In 1852, S. H. Smith, Esq., then owner of the 
foundry, connected with it a large establish- 
ment for the making of cars and machinery. 
By an act of the legislature, approved April 
14th, 1834, the name of the town was changed 
from Conemaugh to Johnstown. In 1861, an 
act was passed extending the limits of the bor- 
ough so as to include that suburb known as 
" Goose Island." By the same act, we believe, 
the town was divided into five wards. The 
fifth ward comprises Kernville, and lies on the 
southern side of the Stony Creek. A neat, 
substantial bridge connects the two sections of 
the town. 

The first newspaper published in Johns- 
town, we believe, was the "Johnstown Dem- 
ocrat," which was started about the year 1834. 



The Conemaugh. Ill 

In 1836, the "Ebensburg Sky," wMcli had 
been published by the late Hon. Moses Canan,* 
was removed to Johnstown, where it was pub- 
lished by his son, John J. Canan, Esq. These 
early papers have had numerous successors — 
the ^'Cambria Gazette," the "Johnstown 
News," the "Cambrian," the "Transcript," 
the "Allegheny Mountain Echo," the "Cam- 
bria Tribune," &c. The papers now publish- 
ed here are the "Johnstown Tribune," by J. 
M. Swank, Esq., and the "Johnstown Demo- 
crat," by H. D. Woodruff & Son. The la^t 
named is a new paper started in 1863. 

The real progress of Johnstown dates from 
the year 1853. In that year the Cambria Iroa 
Works were built. This mammoth enterprise 
at once attracted to the town a large amount 
of business, and a vast increase of population, 
as may be seen above. Scores of new houses 
were immediately put up. Besides the in- 
creased importance of Johnstown proper, off- 
shoots from the town sprang up like the cre- 
ations of Aladdin's lamp. These offshoots 
now compose the boroughs of Millville, Cam- 
bria, and Prospect. Conemaugh Borough also 
swelled its attenuated outline to more respect- 
able proportions. 

* See sketch of his life, Chap. X. 



112 The History of 

Johnstown proper contains, as we have said, 
about 6000 souls. It is divided into five wards. 
It contains a large number of stores, shops, 
offices, and manufacturing establishments of 
different kinds. There are several creditable 
botels, and a large number of elegant private 
residences. Religion and education are fos- 
tered, and churches and schools are numerous. 
Of the churches the Lutheran, Presbyterian, 
Methodist Episcopal, and Roman Catholic are 
very fine edifices. The people of Johnstown 
and vicinity, indeed, of the whole valley, are 
industrious, enterprising, and patriotic. Du- 
ring the late terrible war no section of our 
country supported the government with more 
zeal and unanimity than did the people of the 
Conemaugh valley. 

Suburbs of Johnstown. 

Conemaugh Borough. — This is a comparatively 
old borough. It was incorporated March 23d, 
1849. It was formerly the great business centre 
of this neighborhood. It contained, in the 
palmy days of the old main line, many large 
warehouses, which have now entirely disap- 
peared, or are in the last stages of dilapidation, 
the State depot, and so forth, all of which have 



TniJ CONEMAUGH. 1V^> 

% 

long since gone round the Horn. It containf^ 
at present a population of about 2500. In it 
are two or three hotels, several stores and 
drinking saloons, a brewery, the "Johnstown 
Mechanical Works," four school houses and 
two churches. The business of shook 
making is carried on to some extent in this 
town. Conemaugh Borough is divided into 
two wards. The sidewalks are generally cov- 
ered with planks, but the streets themselves 
in wet weather are in a deplorable condition. 
The glory of the town departed with the aban- 
donment of the old public improvements, and 
but little business is now carried on in it. The 
people generally depend upon the rolling mill 
for employment. 

. Prospect Borough. — This is a small village 
lying upon the high hill overlooking Johnstown 
on the north. It was incorporated in 1863. 
The population is about two hundred and 
twenty-five, principally miners. 

MilMlle, — This borough lies on the western 
side of Johnstown, and is separated from it by 
the Conemaugh river. A fine bridge built in 
1861, and the old aqueduct, connect the two 
towns. Millville was incorporated in 1858. 
It contains about 2300 inhabitants. In this 
town are the most important improvements in 



114 The History of 

# 

the Conemaugh valley. In it are the Camhria 
Iron Company's rolling mill, foundry, machine, 
pattern, blacksmith, carpenter, wagon maker, 
cabinetmaker, and harness maker shops, a flour- 
ing mill, offices, and four large blast furnaces. 
The greater part of this town was built and is 
owned by this company. It is peopled almost 
exclusively by the employees of the rolling 
mill. In it are a hotel, several stores, a large 
steam tannery, the railroad station, and four 
school houses. The lower part of the town is 
called Minersville. A substantial bridge, upon 
which is a roadway for wagons and pedestrians, 
a railroad track for a locomotive, and another 
track for the company's coal trains, spans the 
river, and connects this town with Cambria 
Borough, that lies just on the opposite side. 
At the upper end of the town a handsome iron 
bridge is thrown across the river, upon which 
the Pennsylvania Railroad runs. 

Cambria Borough. — This town lies west of 
Johnstown, and on the southern bank of the 
Coneniaugh. It was laid out about 1853, and 
was incorporated in 1862. It is usually called 
Cambria city. It has a population of about 
800. It is principally made up of employees 
of the Cambria Iron Works. In it are two or 
three stores, three or four hotels and boarding 



The Conemaugh. 115 

houess, a fine brick church edifice belonging 
to the German Catholic congregation, and a 
large school house. Cambria Borough is 
beautifully situated on a broad, flat tract of 
land that stretches away for a mile or more- 
beyond the present borough limits, which win- 
allow the town to expand with the demands 
of the times. At the upper extremity of the 
town, and just outside of the borough, are the 
extensive cement works of A. J. Haws, Esq. 
Conemaugh Station^ or, as it is sometimes 
called, Sylvania, is on the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, about one mile east of Conemaugh Bor- 
ough. It is an important fuel and water 
station for the locomotives used on the road. 
Here is a large "round-house," which will ac- 
commodate sixteen locomotives, a blacksmith 
and machine shop, a water station, a large coal 
scafibld some twenty-five feet high, to which 
the trucks loaded with coal ascend by means 
of an inclined plane, a telegraph office, and a 
boarding house, all the property of the railroad 
company. There are also three or four stores, 
two or three hotels, a church, and two school 
houses. The Conemaugh river runs through 
the village, dividing it into nearly equal parts. 
The river is spanned by a railroad bridge^ and 
another bridge for the convenience of foot 



116 The History of 

passengeis. Large quantities of shook are 
made here. At this place is a blast furnace 
but recently erected. It was built by E. F. 
Hodges & Co., of !N"ew York. It has a capaci- 
ty of about 100 tons per week. The furnace 
is well located, and has every facility for mak- 
ing good metal. It stands but a few rods dis- 
tant from the railroad, with which it is con- 
nected by a branch. The population of Cone- 
maugh Station is about 500. The town is not 
incorporated. It is a very pleasant village to 
live in. 

Woodvale. — This town, which was laid out 
in 1864, lies in the beautiful flat extending 
between Johnstown and Conemaugh Station, 
and forms an articulating link between the 
two places. A substantial bridge is thrown 
across the river, and connects the upper end 
of Conemaugh Borough with the lower end of 
the new town. Woodvale was laid out by the 
Johnstown Manufacturing Company, the pro- 
prietors of the site. It embraces an area of 
nearly one hundred acres of the best land in 
the neighborhood of Johnstown ; being a rich 
alluvial soil, with a descent of about twenty 
feet in the mile. This will afford sufficient 
drainage to keep the town dry and healthful. 
The Conemaugh flows along one side of the 



The Conbmaugh. 117 

town, and the Pennsylvania Railroad passes 
along the other. The principal street, which 
is nearly a mile long, extends the length of the 
town, and runs east and west parallel with the 
railroad. This street is sixt}^ feet in breadth, 
and has been graded and neatly and substan- 
tially paved with stone. Along the river bank 
a stone wall six feet high and about a mile in 
length has been built to prevent the washing 
away of the shore. A street railroad will be 
made, running from Woodvale to Johnstown. 
This will bring this new town into such close 
connection with the business part of the older 
town, that, what with the beauty of the loca- 
tion, and the exemption from the dust and an- 
noyances of Johnstown and the rolling mill, 
which the citizens of Woodvale will enjoy, it 
will cause the latter to be the most attractive 
spot for houses in all this neighborhood. The 
Company's new woolen mill . is located here, 
and a beautiful town is springing up around it 
as if by enchantment. There is no doubt thats 
in a very few years Woodvale will be the most 
flourishing and pleasing suburb of Johnstown. 



CHAPTER VI, 



BLAIRSVILLE. 

This town is situated on the northern turn- 
pike leading from Huntingdon to Pittsburg, 
at the distance of forty-two miles to the east of 
that city. It is built upon elevated ground on 
the right bank of the Conemaugh river, about 
thirty miles below Johnstown. A rough per- 
pendicular precipice rises from the water's 
edge, which is now chiefly hidden by large 
warehouses and other buildings, somewhat 
similar in point of architecture to those of the 
Cowgate in Edinburg, which. Judge Bracken- 
ridge says, are thirteen stories on one side and 
half a story on the other. The location of 
Blairsville is extremely healthy ; the water very 
good, and the place has never been visited to 
any extent by those dreadful disorders that 
sometimes carry off whole populations at one 
fell stroke. 

This town is laid out with great regularity. 
The streets are broad^ well paved, and as straight 
as a rule can make them. There are three 
principal streets, which run nearly due east 



The Conbmaugh. 119 

and west, and ^ve cross streets. There are also 
four alleys running parallel with the principal 
streets, which divide the different squares into 
equal parts. The sloping character of the 
ground upon which the town is situated affords 
excellent drainage, and the streets and alleys 
are thua easily kept clear of filth, which no 
doubt adds greatly to the healthfulness of the 
place. 

Adjoining Blairsville on the east is the village 
of Brownstown. It contains a population of 
perhaps two hundred and fifty souls. It is not 
incorporated, hut forms a part of Burrell town- 
ship. It is to all intents and purposes a suburb 
of Blairsville, and ought to be included in that 
borough. The village was probably laid out 
by, and named in honor of, Mr. Andrew Brown, 
who lived in this neighborhood as early as 1818, 
and was one of the charterers of Blairsville. 

In Brownstown are a public school house, 
two large hotels, a fine Catholic church edifice, 
school house and parsonage, a foundry, and a 
threshing-machine manufactory. The turn- 
pike passes through this town. The hill upon 
the slope of which the village is built contains 
several fine veins of coal which have long been 
opened, and supply the townspeople with that 
mineral for their own use, as well as large 



120 Thk History of 

quantities for export The ooal of this region 
is of excellent quality. The surrounding coun- 
try is an alternation of hill and dale, and grove 
and meadow, divided into farms, most of which 
are highly productive. 

The hank of the river ahout half a mile ahove 
Blairsville is very high and precipitous, and is 
known as the "Alum Bank." There is an 
upright wall of nature's own masonry, in some 
places fifty or sixty feet high, and helow this 
an ahrupt descent of perhaps a hundred feet 
more to the water's edge, covered with forests. 
This cliff is a mile or two in length. Several 
veins of iron ore and coal have heen opened 
upon its face. The spectator who stands upon 
the edge of this precipice may see the tops of 
tall trees just at his feet and almost within his 
grasp. Below these is the river, beyond v/hich 
may be seen the canal, the railroad, broad 
fields and patches of woodland stretching away 
to the foot of the Chestnut Eidge. 

There is a number of fine buildings in 
Blairsville. The hotels are excellent; the 
churches large and tastefully finished, and the 
school house, containing four rooms and two 
halls, is spacious and commodious. There is 
a fine market house of brick, built in 1857,, 
containing on the first floor an entry, a lock-up. 



The Conemaugh. 121 

and a large apartment devoted to the purposes 
of a market; and, on tlie second floor, an 
entry, a council chamber, and a spacious 
room provided with seats and a rostrum, 
which is used for a town-hall. On the north- 
ern side of the town, surrounded by orna- 
mental trees and shrubbery, is the Female 
Seminary, a large brick building of imposing 
appearance. It was opened for pupils in 1853, 
It has always maintained a high character as 
an institution of learning. This town was laid 
out about the year 1819, and was named in 
honor of John Blair, Esq., of Blair's Gap. The 
town-site originally belonged to Mr. James 
Campbell. The turnpike which passes through 
it was constructed in 1819, and gave an im- 
petus to the growth of the town. In 1821, the 
noble bridge which spans the river at that 
place was erected. Though it has been stand- 
ing for more than forty years it gives promise 
of lasting for years to come. It is a single 
arch, three hundred feet in length. For 
many years after its erection it was consider- 
ed the best bridge in Western Pennsylvania, 
and was the especial pride of the good people 
of Blairsville. Prior to the building of this 
bridge, Mr. John Mulhollan ran a ferry-boat 
across the river where the bridge now stands. 



122 The History of 

In 1825, the town was incorporated as a bor- 
ough ; and two years afterward the population 
was ascertained to be 500. In 1828, the West- 
ern Division of the canal was completed to this 
place, and the Eastern was advancing, step by 
step, towards the mountains; the intermediate 
sections of canal and the railroad over the moun- 
tains, were in progress, but still unfinished. 
The carrying trade, therefore, and the increas- 
ing travel, were obliged to resort to the turn- 
pike. This gave great importance to Blairsville 
as a depot, and the place was full of bustle and 
prosperity. Long strings of wagons laden with 
goods of various descriptions were every day 
arriving and departing. At night, the whole 
town was one vast caravansary for the accom- 
modation of man and beast. There are old 
citizens of Blairsville who still speak in glowing 
terms of those golden days. Immense hotels 
and warehouses were erected ; four or five 
churches were built within three years ; pro- 
perty increased in value, and the hotels were 
swarming with speculators, engineers, con- 
tractors, and forwarding agents. Men grew 
rich there in a day. In 1834, the communica- 
tion was opened over the mountains ; the use 
of the turnpike was to a great extent abandoned, 
and the merchants and inn keepers of Blairs- 



The Conemaugh. 123 

ville were compelled to sit and see tlie trade 
and travel "pass by on the other side." A 
reaction and depression of course ensued to 
Bome extent; but the enterprising citizens 
were only driven to the natural resources of the 
country as a basis of trade.* 

The town, notwithstanding this back-set, 
continued to thrive at a more healthy rate, and 
in 1840 it had a population of 1000. So, too, 
through the next decade, and in 1850 the pop- 
ulation had run up to the neighborhood of 1500 
souls. Business was brisk. The surrounding 
country is an excellent farming district, and 
large quantities of agricultural products were 
exported. A large steam grist mill, a woolen 
factory, a starch factory, two flourishing brick- 
yards, two extensive foundries, one on the 
Blairsville and the other on the Bairdstown 
side of the river, and two or three prosperous 
tanneries, contribued to swell the amount of 
exports from the port of Blairsville to a respect- 
able figure. Capacious wharves had been 
built along the slackwater upon which the 
town is situated, and boats were at any time to 
be seen lying there, either shipping or dis- 
charging their cargoes. The ''tarry sailor- 
man" and the typical mule team were every- 

*Daj's Hist. Col., page 379. 



124 The History of 

day sights in the goodly streets of Blairsville. 
But all these have now disappeared. 

It may be interesting to the present race of 
Blairsvillers to read the opinion formed by a 
stranger of Blairsville and its society more 
than thirty years ago. We extract from a let- 
ter written by a tourist, June 18th, 1833, at 
Blairsville. He says: ^'I address you now 
from a town, which, as you see it marked on 
the map, is a place of minor consideration, 
but which in reality, considered as a point in 
the chain of public improvements which con- 
nects the eastern and western parts of the 
State, is of vast importance. Blairsville, a 
few years since, consisted of a solitary public 
house, at which the traveler across the moun- 
tains might stop to refresh himself and his 
beast; now it contains a large number of sub- 
stantially built and handsome brick edifices — 
several churches — a market and school house, 
and not less than four or five well kept hotels. 
It has sprung up suddenly, but its duration 
will not be the less permanent. 

"Blairsville stands on the western* bank of 
the Conemaugh river, a stream flowing into 
the Allegheny river, about thirty miles from 
Pittsburg, and is distant from that city by 

*This is incorrect. Blairsville is situated on the eastern side of 
the Conemaugh. 



The Conemaugh. 125 

land, forty miles; by tlie course of the river 
seventy. This river is one of tlie most beau- 
tiful and romantic streams in tbe west. I 
bave passed along its banks for some distance, 
and been strongly reminded of our favorite 
Schuykill, which, in some respects, it strongly 
resembles. Its course is meandering and ir- 
regular. Along this river a canal has been 
made, east to Johnstown, and west to Pitts- 
burg, forming the western division ot^the 
Pennsylvania Canal. * 

^< The society of Blairsville is remarkable 
for its intelligence. I say this not to deterio- 
rate from the respectability of other western 
towns, but because from personal intercourse 
and observation, I have had abundant oppor- 
tunities to ascertain the fact. We of the east 
do not properly estimate the worth of charac- 
ter which exists in the west. We are too apt 
to fancy that the well-informed— the states- 
man—the philosopher— the man of breeding, 
is only to be found in large cities. This is a 
great mistake as applied to western Pennsyl- 
vania. With the most of those to whom I 
have been introduced across the mountains, 
my acquaintance has been extremely pleasant, 
and the kindness and attentions^of the Blairs- 
ville people I shall never forget." * 

♦ See Philadephia Gazette, June, 1833. 



126 The History op 

A newspaper was started here about the 
year 1825. It was called, if we mistake not, 
''The Blairsville Eecord and "Westmoreland 
Advertiser." The first editor, we believe, was 
a Mr. McFarland. It soon dropped a part of 
the name, and was called merely the "Blairs- 
ville Record." It was successively styled the 
''Record," "Citizen," " Apalachian," "True 
American," and "Journal," and was carried 
on by difierent parties to the year 1861, when 
it foundered in an open sea. Down to 1849, 
when Messrs. Matthias & Caldwell took charge 
of it, it had been the avowed exponent of the 
Democratic party in the county; but in the 
hands of these gentlemen it soon lost the 
characteristics of a party organ, and made its 
appearance in the garb of a neutral. Mr. T^ 
S. Reid, who succeeded in the proprietorship 
in 1855, changed the name from the "Apala- 
chian" to the "True American," and the pa- 
per itselt from a neutral to a strong Republi- 
can sheet. About this time a new paper was 
started in the town under the auspices of the 
Democrats, and bore the time-honored appel- 
lation: "The Blairsville Record." This paper 
was kept afloat until the year 1863, when it 
also went down. In the spring of 1865, the 
Republican paper was revived under the name 



The Conemaugh. 12T 

of tlie "New Era," of wMcli Wm. E. Boyers, 
Esq., is editor. 

The decade commencing with 1850, opened 
with bright prospects for Blairsville. Business 
on the canal was brisk, and the amount of 
shipments and imports at that place exhibit a 
state of great prosperity. For 1851, the re- 
ceipts at that port amounted to nearly $11,500, 
Two extensive yards were kept in constant 
employ in building or repairing boats. In 
1851, the Pennsylvania Railroad was finished as 
far as that place, and passengers for the west 
here took the boat for Pittsburg. These were 
gala days for Blairsville. It was, however, but 
a repetition of the short-lived prosperity of 
1830. Thousands of emigrants and others 
passed through the town every week, and 
of course left behind them more or less of 
their specie. Blairsville thus suddenly be- 
came a great transhipping port. A new town 
called O'Harra, was laid out by Hr. William 
Maher, around the railroad depot, on the 
southern side of Blairsville, and town lots 
were readily sold for hundreds of dollars that 
could now be purchased for perhaps as many 
tens. Fine houses were erected, and every- 
thing was carried along on the top-wave of 
success. But all this prosperity was evanes- 



12^ The History op 

cent, as it had been in the former case. The 
railroad was finished through to Pittsburg in 
the latter part of 1852, and again the mer- 
chants and inn-keepers of Blairsville were 
compelled to see the trade and travel "pass 
hy on the other side." JSTo more car-loads of 
obese emigrants from the "Faderland" came 
to Blairsville Avith their clinking pouches of 
^old and silver. ^ more hack-loads of well- 
dressed ladies and gentlemen were seen ap- 
proaching the hotels, to the inexpressible de- 
light of mine host, whose practised eye saw 
his account in them at a glance. 

From this time down to 1860, the town 
steadily declined. In that year the population 
was found to have receded to 1000 souls; just 
what it was in 1840. The Blairsville Branch 
railroad that connects with the main road at a 
pomt about three miles from the town, about 
the year 1856 was extended to the town of 
Indiana; and though the latter was greatly 
benefited, Blairsville was improved thereby 
no whit. Her fate seemed to be sealed. 
She was apparently one of the "doomed cities." 
Her people had nothing more to do. The town 
was finished; and the inhabitants sat down 
peacefully to await the providence of God. 
But from this depression Blairsville is rapidly 



The Conemaugh. 129 

recovering. The construction of the Western 
Pennsylvania Eailroad, commenced about 
1854, and then abandoned for some years, has 
contributed a fresh impetus to the prosperity 
of the town, and given the citizens heart of 
hope. Some improvements have been made 
since 1860, and other and more important ones 
are in contemplation. The neighboring hills 
abound in iron ore, coal, limestone, and so forth, 
of the best quality, and favorable signs of oil 
have been discovered in the valleys. There is 
no conceivable reason why manufactures of 
different kinds, and especially of iron, should 
not be carried on in Blairsville with the great- 
est success. The population now (1865) is said 
to be over 1500. This shows a wonderful re- 
actionary tendency; and as her prosperity this 
time seems based on a more stable foundation, 
Elairsville will yet arise to the dignified posi- 
tion for which God and nature have designed 
her. 



CHAPTER VII. 



OTHEE TOWNS AND VILLAGES. 

Cambria County.* 

The villages of Cambria county may be 
divided into two classes — those which lie in 
the north of the county, and are of spontaneous 
o:rowth, and those which lie in the south of the 
county, and have sprung up in consequence of 
the diiFerent lines of public improvements. 

The villages in the north of the county are 
Ebensburg, Carrolltown, Loretto, St. Augus- 
tine, Chess Springs, Munster, Belsano, and 
Plottsville. Ebensburg has been already des- 
cribed. 

Carrolltown is eight miles north of Ebens- 
burg, and is connected with it by a plank road. 
It is located on an eminence. The original 
Carrolltown lies on the south side of the hill ; 
but the part of the village more lately built 
extends over the crest of the hill, down the 
northern slope into the valley beyond. It is 
about half a mile in length. The Catholic 

♦ For this description of the towns and villages |in Cambria 
county, I am indebted to my excellent friend, S. B. AlcCormick, 
Esq., late County Superintendent of Cambria county. 



The Conemaugh. 131 

church is a large brick building, situated on 
the highest ground in the village, and about 
midway between the extreme ends. The pub- 
lic school-house is similarly located, and stands 
on the opposite side of the street from the 
church. It contains a thriving population, and 
is surrounded by a productive country and 
thrifty farmers. 

Loretto is situated about five miles east of 
Ebensburg, on a public road leading from 
Cresson to Carrolltown. It is located on the 
southern slope of a hill, and contains quite a 
number of inhabitants. The Sisters of Chari- 
ty have a female school in operation in this 
place, and the Franciscan Brothers have a col- 
lege with ample grounds attached, and which 
is largely attended, built in close proximity to- 
the village. There is also a very large brick 
Catholic church in this village. 

Chess Springs lies eight miles northeast of 
Loretto, on a public road leading from Loretto 
to White township. It is built on elevated 
ground which slightly slopes westwardly, and 
contains some fifty dwellings. Beautiful farms 
surround the place, and it is healthful, and 
supplied with excellent water. There is a 
steam saw mill in the vicinity. This village 
might be called the Buenos Ayres of Cambria 
county. 



132 The History of 

>S'/. Augustine is three miles northeast of 
Chess Springs, situated on the same public 
road. The ridge which runs along between 
the valleys near the place, is called the Loop. 
On that ridge there is at one place a slight 
depression of the surface, and in this depres- 
sion, there are cross roads, at which the village 
is built. There is a frame Catholic church, 
and a public school-house in the place. 

Munster is the next town in size of the 
northern class, and is situated four miles east 
of Ebensburg on the turnpike road. The 
Ebensburg and Cresson railroad runs through 
the place. It is built on a level plot of ground, 
and is surrounded by a great number of pro- 
ductive farms. It contains a small population, 
but no public buildings. 

Belsttiio is located about eight miles south- 
west of Ebensburg, on the Clay Pike, leading 
to Indiana borough. It is a small place, in an 
unproductive section of country, and is now 
almost isolated from the business world. 

Plottsville lies eight miles north of Carroll- 
town, on the road leading to the Cherry Tree, a 
small town in Indiana county. It is a small 
village of little importance. 

The towns in the southern portion of the 
county are Johnstown and surrounding bor- 



The Conemaugh. ~ 133 

oughs, Summerhill, "Wilmore, Foot-of-Four, 
Summit, Cresson, Gallitzin, Perkinsville, Scalp- 
Level, Geistown, and Parkstown. Of tliese 
Summerhill, Wilmore, Foot-of-Four, and Sum- 
mitville are relics of the Allegheny Portage 
Kailroad, which in its time ran through them, 
and which gave origin to their existence. — 
Johnstown and its suburbs have been already 
described. 

Summerhill, which should have been termed 
Winter Hollow, is located in a narrow valley 
between hills through which the Portage Rail- 
road ran. The Pennsylvania Railroad runs 
close by the old village, and sustains its vitali- 
ty. It contains two or three hundred inhabi- 
tants. 

Wilmore is similarly situated, a few miles 
east of Summerhill. The Pennsylvania Rail- 
road passes near the place. It was once a 
brisk village, but is now decaying rapidly. 
There are many beautiful and productive farms 
in the vicinity. 

Foot-of-Four was built at the foot of plane 
!N"o. 4, on the Portage Railroad. The Penn- 
sylvania Railroad runs close by this village; 
nevertheless, it is in a state of dilapidation. 
The town is called Foot-of-Four, the station 
Lilly's Station, and the Post Office Hemlock. 



134 The History op 

Summiiville was built on the summit of the 
m.ountain, at the head of the planes on the 
Portage Railroad. It is now a decayed vil- 
lage, although there is a fine Catholic church 
in the place. It is half a mile from Cresson, 
•on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

Cresson, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, is 
four miles east of the Foot-of-Four, and is a 
watering place, much frequented in the sum- 
mer months by visitors from the cities. Other- 
wise it is an unimportant place. 

Gallitzin is situated at the east end of the 
tunnel on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and also 
comprises Tunnel Hill, on the top of the 
mountain above said tunnel. It lies partly 
in Blair county. It is a growing place. 

Perkinsville is a small village on the Canal 
three miles west of Johnstown. 

Scalp-Level and Geisiown are small villages in 

Richland township, towards Somerset county. 

Farkstown is a small place on the old 

Frankstown road, about two miles east of 

Johnstown. 

Benscreek. — This is a small village sur- 
rounding a furnace of the same name, situ- 
ated about three miles south of Johnstown, on 
the Somerset road. A portion of the village is 
in Cambria and a portion in Somerset county. 



The Conemaugh. 135 

The furnace, which has been in operation for 
many years, is not now in blast; and, as a con- 
sequence, the population is somewhat thinned 
out. It was once a thriving settlement. 

Mill Creek. — This is another village, similar 
in its origin and surroundings to Benscreek, 
situated five miles southeast of Johnstown, 
at the base of the Laurel Hill, and is connect- 
ed with Benscreek by a tram railroad, five 
miles in length. The furnace is not at pres- 
ent in blast, and the inhabitants are not nu- 
merous, nor in a prosperous condition. 

Cambria Furnace. — About ^yq miles north- 
west of Johnstown, and near one mile from 
the Conemaugh river, northward, there is a 
furnace located, near the base of Laurel Hill, 
with the foregoing name and title, surrounded 
by a smart little village. Like the other two 
furnaces, it is not now in operation. All these 
furnaces formerly belonged to Shoenberger & 
Co., and are now, with the lands adjoining, 
the property of the Cambria Iron Company. 

Somerset County. 

Davidsville is a small village on the plank 
road leading from Johnstown to Stoystown. 
It is much frequented in the sleighing season 



136 The History of 

by gay companies of young folks from the 
former place, who believe that a good supper 
and a merry dance repay them for the journey 
of sixteen miles there and back. 

Stoystoion lies on the same road, ten mils be- 
yond Davidsville. This is an old village. It 
was laid out by an old Revolutionary soldier 
named Stoy. We have already spoken of the 
ruins of a house here visible at a late period, 
which was said to have been built in 1758. — 
This town was incorporated as a borough in 
1819. It is a flourishing town, and has a pop- 
ulation of several hundreds. 

Six miles from Stoystown on the same road 
is Snydersville, a small town containing a post 
office, a tannery, and several houses. 

Twelve miles from Johnstown, on the turn- 
pike leading to Somerset we come to Forwards- 
town. This is a small village. 

Six miles from Forwardstown is Jennerville, 
on the same road. It contains a store, a tavern, 
and so forth. 

Svpesville is a small town on the same road, 
four miles from Jennerville. It contains a 
couple of stores, a tavern, and so on. 

Jenner Cross Roads is a well known point at 
the crossing of the Somerset and the Pittsburg 
turnpikes, a couple of miles from Jennerville. 



The Conemaugh. 137 

"Westmoreland County. 

Conemaugh Furnace lies on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad seven miles west of Johnstown. A 
furnace was built here in 1839 or 1840, by 
Messrs. McGill, Foster & White. It was kept 
in operation for some time, but has been aban- 
doned for many years. The stack alone re- 
mains to indicate that it ever had an existence. 
A number of people still live here in the 
houses that were put up for the accommoda- 
tion of the furnace hands. This place lies 
right in the gorge of the Laurel Hill, upon 
one of the most beautiful stretches of water 
along this entire river. The scenery around 
is of the wildest and most romantic descrip- 
tion. 

Nineveh Station lies two miles west of Cone- 
maugh furnace. Here are a water-station, a 
store, and several very comfortable residences. 
Large quantities of bark, shook, staves, and 
so forth, are shipped from this point. 

New Florence is six miles west of Nineveh 
station. This is a pleasant and thriving town, 
surrounded by a rich, productive country. It 
was laid out about the year 1851 or 1852. In 
this village are several stores, a hotel, a couple 



138 The History of 

of churches, a school house, and a numher of 
fine residences. The people of 'New Florence 
are distinguished for their intelligence, respec- 
tability, and morality. Before the war a fine 
classical school was located in this town. — 
Laurel Hill furnace, an exploded enterprise, 
is situated at the foot of the Laurel Hill, at the 
distance of a mile or two from this town. 

Three miles west of I^ew Florence is Lock- 
port. This is a small village lying on the canal 
and the railroad. A beautiful stone aqueduct 
of ^ve arches here crosses the river. In this 
village are a wood and water station, a couple 
of stores, school house, and establishments for 
the manufacture of fire brick. There are also 
the remains of an old furnace. 

About three miles from Lockport in a south- 
erly direction is a small hamlet known as 
Covodesville. It is the property of the Hon. 
John Covode, the distinguished politician, who 
has his home here. This village contains a 
large woolen factory, saw mill, school house, 
and so forth. 

Bolivar lies one mile west of Lockport. In 
this village are extensive fire-brick establish- 
ments. A foot-bridge crosses the Conemaugh, 
and a neat stone aqueduct a small stream that 
flows into the river at this place from the 
Bouthward. 



The Conemaugh. 139 

Proceeding along the railroad five miles 
further, we come to the Blairsville Intersection, 
where the hranch railroad leading to Blairsvili -^ 
and Indiana intersects the main road. Here 
are a station, telegraph office, post office, a 
hotel, and some five or six dwelling houses. 

In going from Bolivar to the Blairsville 
Intersection, we pass through the Chestnut 
Ridge by a valley apparently cut by the river 
for its own accommodation. The scenery along 
here is exceedingly wild and picturesque. 
Coming down from the southward, and split- 
ting the Ridge at about right angles with the 
river valley, is a deep gorge known as the 
Pack Saddle. A high "dump" crosses this 
gorge at its mouth, upon which the track of 
the railroad is laid. Immediately opposite to 
the mouth of the Pack Saddle is the abrupt 
termination of a lofty mountain range that 
comes down from the north. The work of 
constructing the railroad through the Chestnut 
Ridge was a difficult enterprise, and the classic 
region of the Pack Saddle was the scene of 
many a hard fought battle between the " Cork- 
onians " and ' 'Far-downers," whom the work 
had brought together. 

Four miles west of the Intersection we come 
to Hillside, This ia important as a wood and 



140 The History op 

water station on the railroad. It contains a 
store, a large steam tannery, and several dwell- 
ing houses. 

About two miles from Hillside, at the base 
of the Chestnut Hidge, is a remarkable cavern 
known as the Bear Cave. It was explored 
more than thirty years ago. It consists of one 
main entrance, which, at a short distance from 
the mouth, branches off into innumerable 
and hitherto interminable ramifications, and 
these again into countless other branches, 
forming, on the whole, a labyrinth that would 
have puzzled the brain of Theseus himself. 

A few years ago, we formed one of a party 
of 'B.ve that visited this subterranean wonder. 
We went provided with light and with a large 
ball of strong twine. Fastening one end of 
this twine near the mouth of the cavern, we 
continued to unroll the ball as we proceeded, 
thus having a certain clue to find our way 
back. On our return, we wound up the twine 
as we came along, and, by measuring the 
string afterward, we were al^le to tell the dis- 
tance we had penetrated. We found it to be 
over -Qye hundred paces, or more than a quar- 
ter of a mile! After we had gone this dis- 
tance, the end of the passage seemed as far off 
as ever. 



The Conemaugh. 141 

The reader must not imagine this cavern to 
resemble in any respect the famous Mammoth 
Cave, in Kentucky. This, so far as it has ever 
been explored, is only a long, narrow, sinuous 
passage, or rather a system of such passages ; 
sometimes, it is true, expanding into little 
chambers hung with lack-lustre stalactites ; 
but, for the greater part of the way, only the 
narrow passage we have described, as though 
an earthquake had partly rent the mountain 
in twain. We remember walking along the 
crumbling edge of a precipice, steadying our- 
selves by the walls, while below us was an 
abyss so deep, so dark, so profound that it 
seemed to be bottomless. A single false step 
here would send the thoughtless adventurer 
down into depths immeasurable. 

So contracted is this passage in some places 
that the explorer is obliged to make his way 
on his hands and knees, — nay, he sometimes, 
from his longitudinal posture, would seem to 
be a sharer in the sentence of the serpent, and 
lucky is he if he doesn't have to eat dirt on 
the way. 

Visitors to this cavern should enter it only 
in dry weather. The channel of a little moun- 
tain stream passes through it. This in wet 
weather of course becomes swollen, and must 
nearly, if not quite, stop up the passage 



142 The History op 

through this labyrinth. The fate of one who 
should become thus immured may be easily 
imagined. The narrow escape from such a 
fate which we ourself made on that occasion^ 
has made a lasting impression on our mind. 

There have been many stories circulated in 
that vicinity about spacious apartments, mag- 
nificent with natural decorations, of beautiful 
altars, and columns, and other wonderful for- 
mations, that have been discovered in this 
cavern; but upon our visit we saw nothing of 
the kind — nothing in the main but a long, 
tortuous maze with blackened walls and un- 
even floors ; dark, yawning chasms, that seem- 
ed to have no bottom ; and gloomy side-pas- 
sages into which if one should wander he might 
never return. 

Derry Station., an important point on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, lies four miles west of 
Hillside. This place is rapidly improving, and 
promises at an early day to be a town of no 
mean pretensions. A number of fine houses 
have been recently put up, and others are in 
course of building. A road to Ligonier and 
other towns in the Ligonier Valley, passes 
through this place. At the distance of two or 
three miles from Derry station, there is a 
prominent peak of the Chestnut Ridge, known 



The Conemaugh. 143 

as Duncan's Knob. This mountain range being 
the westernmost outlier of the Alleghanies, 
furnishes from its exposed hights many fine 
and extensive prospects. Of all these exposed 
points, Duncan's Knob perhaps affords the 
most expansive view. "We visited it some years 
ago. We were able to see plainly the towns 
of Jacksonville and Indiana, and all the inter- 
vening and surrounding country. Some six or 
eight towns and villages were distinctly visible. 
And yet the distance from where we stood to 
the town of Indiana, which must be in the 
neighborhood of twenty-five miles, compared 
with the distance which we could see beyond 
that town, seemed to us to bear about the same 
ratio that an inch bears to a foot-rule. The 
broad expanse of hill and dale, meadow and 
woodland, stretched away to the north and 
west until it gradually blended in an indistinct 
haze with the far-off horizon, A correct idea 
of the extent and magnificence of our globe 
can only be obtained by viewing it from such 
a standpoint as this. 

And standing on that rugged peak, with this 
vast amphitheater at our feet, we thought of 
the beautiful lines of Goldsmith : 

"E'en now, where Alpine solitudes ascend, 
I sit me down a pensive hour to spend ; 
And placed on high, above the storm's career, 
Look downward where a hundred realms appear." 



144 The History of 

New Derry^ au old village in spite of its name, 
is situated a short distance north of Deny sta- 
tion. It is a pleasant little town lying in the 
midst of a rich farming district, and contains 
several churches, shops, stores, and so on. 

St. Clair lies on the railroad a couple of miles 
west of Derry station. It is an unimportant 
railroad station. 

Latrobe is three miles west of St. Clair. It 
lies on both sides of the railroad, u2:)on a broad, 
level loop of land formed by a bend in the 
Loyalhanna. This is an important, thriving 
town. It was laid out about the year 1851, 
and has already grown to be a town of consid- 
erable size. It contains several fine churches 
and hotels, two or three large flouring mills, a 
car manufactory, and a number of stores, shops, 
and so forth. The surrounding country is 
highly fertile, and is well cultivated. This 
village is yet in its infancy, and will doubtless 
soon become one of our most flourishing inland 
towns. 

Youngstoivn is situated on the turnpike about 
a mile south of Latrobe. It is a country village 
of ver}' modest pretensions. It contains sev- 
eral churches, stores, hotels, and so forth. 
Contiguous to the village are two large estab- 
lishments for the education of youth. These 



The Conemaugh. 145 

belong to the Roman Catholic church, and are 
known, the one as St. Vincent's, and the other 
as St. Xavier's : the latter for the education of 
young ladies, and the former for young gentle- 
men. These institutions are well patronized, 
well conducted, and stand high in the estima- 
tion of the church to which they belong. 

Ligonier is on the same turnpike, about ten 
miles east of Youngstown. We have already 
mentioned that here was a stronghold during 
the Indian troubles of the last century. At 
the time of Forbes' expedition it was known 
as Loyalhanna. It may be remembered that 
after the defeat of Major Grant at Fort Pitt, 
the enemy attacked Colonel Boquet in his 
camp at Loyalhanna, but were driven off with 
loss. Shortly after this we find that the place 
was known as Fort Ligonier. An attack was 
also made upon this fort in 1763, but as unsuc- 
cessfully as before. The site of the old fort is 
still remembered, and numerous bullets, and 
other relics of the battle-field, have been found 
in the neighborhood. Ligonier is a pleasant 
village, and finely located. The surrounding 
country, which is known as Ligonier valley, 
is one of the most beautiful and productive 
districts in western Pennsylvania. The citi- 
zens of Ligonier are a quiet, unambitious, in- 



146 The History op 

telligent people, and their town is one of the 
most pleasant villages to be found. 

Oak Grove and Waterford are two small vil- 
lages lying on the road leading from Ligonier 
to Johnstown, and at the distances respectively 
of three miles and five miles from the former. 
In the neighborhood is a furnace. 

Laughlinstown is a small place three miles 
east of Ligonier, and just at the foot of the 
Laurel Hill. Like all turnpike towns, it is 
going to decay. Modern improvements have 
supplanted in a great measure the turnpikes 
and canals of a former era, and the old-fash- 
ioned roadside villages are finding themselves 
left "out in the cold." Li the vicinity of 
Laughlinstown are two or three furnaces that, 
w^e believe, are now entirely abandoned. 

Bairdstoimi lies on the Conemaugh, just op- 
posite Blairsville, with which it is connected 
by a bridge. The turnpike passes through it, 
and also the obsolete Pennsylvania Canal. This 
town lies chiefly along the face of a hill called 
Baird's Hill. Wlien the canal w^as in all its 
glory, Bairdstown contained several extensive 
boat-yards. The sides of the canal were cov- 
ered with large warehouses, stables, and so 
forth, some of which have since disappeared, 
while the rest have fallen into disuse. There 



The Conemaugh. 147" 

is but little business now carried on in tbe 
town. 

Livermore is a small village on tbe canal,, 
about six miles below Bairdstown. The West- 
ern Pennsylvania Railroad now passes through 
it, which will preserve it from absolute decay. 

New Alexandria, or, as it is more frequently 
called, Dennisontown, is on the old northern; 
turnpike, about eight miles west of Blairsville. 
It is an incorporated town, and has a popula- 
tion of three or four thousand inhabitants. It 
is not now as thriving as when the turnpike 
was in more general use. 

Fairfield lies four miles south of ISTew Flor- 
ence, on a public road leading from the latter 
place to Ligonier. It contains two churches, 
a school house, several stores, a couple of ho- 
tels, and other public places of business. In 
the churchyard lie the remains of several of 
the early pioneers of this section of country, 
who were killed by the Indians, 

Indiana County. 

Nineveh is an old, decayed village, on the 
canal, about one mile north of Mneveh sta- 
^tion. It contains a saw mill, tavern, and a 
few dwelling houses. 



148 The History of 

Centerville in also on the canal, lying imme- 
diately opposite Kew Florence. A bridge 
across the Conemaugh connects the two vil- 
lages. Centerville is an old town, and was 
formerly in a more prosperous condition than 
at present. An old Indian village is said to 
have stood near where Centerville now stands. 
This is believed to have been called Kiskeme- 
neco, and was visited by Post and his party in 
[N'ovember, 1758. At three o'clock of the 
same day on which they passed through Kick- 
enapawling, they came to Kiskemeneco, which 
Post describes as "an old Indian town, a rich 
bottom, well timbered, good fine grass, well 
watered, and lays waste since the war began." 
It was within half-a-day's ride of Kickenapaw- 
ling, and from the name was evidently situated 
somewhere upon the Kiskiminetas or Cone- 
maugh river. 

Fillmore., on the Conemaugh, just opposite to 
Livermore, is a small village. A bridge con- 
nects the two places. 

Saltsburg lies at the confluence of the Cone- 
maugh and Loyalhanna. It is about twelve 
miles from Blairsville. It derives its name 
from the numerous salt works in its vicinity. 
The discovery of salt at this place has been 
already described. This was one of the earliest 



The Conemaugh. 149 

permanent settlements in the county, as tliere 
were cabins standing here as early as 1800. 
Saltsburg is a thriving little town. The Penn- 
sylvania canal and the "Western Pennsylvania 
Eailroad pass through it. It contains a number 
of stores, hotels, shops, and so forth. 

Clarksburg is on the Black Legs creek, ^yq 
miles northeast of Saltsburg. It contains tAvo 
churches, several stores, a school house, tan- 
nery, a grist mill, a saw mill, a tavern, and other 
buildings. 

Elder's Bidge is four miles north-west ot 
Saltsburg, on the road leading from Saltsburg 
to Elderton, in Armstrong county. It is a 
small village, and only important as being the 
seat of a first class Presbyterian academy, 
which has long been conducted by the Eev. 
Alex. Donaldson, D. D., a gentleman of fine 
abilities and of eminent success in his pro- 
fession. 

Lewisville is -^Ye miles east of Clarksburg, on 
the road going from Clarksburg to Blairsville. 
It is a small town. It contains a church, store, 
post office, tannery, and other buildings. 

Jacksonville lies on the road leading from 
Saltsburg to Indiana, and is ten miles from the 
latter town. It also contains a fine academy, 
and is a thriving little place. 



150 The History op 

Homer is a smart village on the Indiana 
'Branch railroad, about six miles from Indiana. 
It was laid out about the year 1855, by the late 
William Wilson, Esq. It contains a church, 
school house, several stores, a hotel, grist mill, 
a large steam saw mill, a tannery, and other 
improvements. The place is improving rapidly, 
and seems destined to become an important 
town. 

Mechanicshurg is a pleasant, prosperous vil- 
lage on th^ road leading from Homer to 
Strongstown, six miles from Homer. It con- 
tains an academy, several stores, hotels, and 
^so forth. 

New Washington is on the northern turnpike 
two miles west of Armagh. It contains a tav- 
-ern, store, and so forth. 

Armagh is an old village on the turnpike, 
* about fourteen miles east of Blairsville, and 
two miles from Nineveh station. It lies near 
'the base of the Laurel Hill on the western side. 
Its location is elevated and healthful, and the 
-surrounding country is beautiful and fertile. 
The village contains a church, store, hotel, 
' shook-shop, and other buildings. It is not so 
prosperous now as when the turnpike was the 
great highway from the east to the west. 

The Indiana Iron Works are situated in a 



The CoNEMAuan. 151 

deep valley about two miles from Conemaugh 
furnace. A furnace was built here by Henry 
iN'oble, about the year 183T. Having passed 
into the hands of Elias Baker, about the year 
1848 it was torn down, and a new furnace built. 
A forge was built close by a short time after- 
ward. It has gone to decay. The furnace is 
at present in successtul operation. A bucket 
factory formerly stood on the site of these 
works. It was built about the year 1828, and 
was owned by Hart & Thompson. The Indi- 
ana Iron "Works are at present better known as 
Baker's furnace. 

Blacklick Furnace was built in 1844, by David 
Stewart. It is situated three miles from Ar- 
magh, on a public road leading from the Indi- 
ana Iron Works to Strongstown. It is not now 
in operation. 

In this neighborhood are two other aban- 
doned enterprises of the same kind : — Buena 
Vista Furnace and Eliza Furnace. The first 
of these is on the road leading from Armagh 
to Indiana, about two miles north of the former 
town. It was built by Henry M' Clelland about 
the year 1847. Eliza Furnace was built by 
David Hitter, about the same time. It was 
located near the junction of the north and south 
forks of the Blacklick, about six miles east of 
Armagh. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE CAMBRIA IRON WORKS. 

If Johnstown is the metropolis of the Cone- 
maugh valley, it is owing entirely to the 
Cambria Iron Works. We have seen that 
prior to 1853, at which time these works were 
established, the town was a rather unimpor- 
tant aflair. It is true, the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, which was completed about this time, 
might have had the effect of causing some 
improvement to be made in it, though to 
what extent it is of course impossible to say. 
But whatever advantage the construction of 
that thoroughfare might have been to the 
town, there is no question that it would have 
been vastly more than counterpoised by the 
subsequent sale and abandonment of the old 
main line. 

The credit of establishing this mammoth 
enterprise is mainly due to the Hon. George 
S. King, of Johnstown. Mr. King, in com- 
pany with others, owned several furnaces, and 
large tracts of ore land in the neighborhood 
of this place. About 1852, stockholders and 
capital were secured, and a company was forth- 



The Conemaugh. 153 

with organized under the general manufactur- 
ing law of June 14th, 1836. The capital re- 
quired by the act of incorporation was one 
million of dollars. Operations were at once 
commenced. A large and well constructed 
frame building was put up. The building was 
in the form of a cross ; the main part was six 
hundred feet long and one hundred feet wide, 
and the transverse part three hundred and 
fifty feet in length and seventy-five feet in width- 
It contained a large amount of heavy machin- 
ery, which was set in motion by five powerful 
steam engines. 

The works were kept in operation by the 
original company for some time, but did not 
prosper. In May, 1855, they were leased for 
a term of years by "Wood, Morrell & Co. In 
the hands of this company new life was in- 
fused into the enterprise. The works were 
set going to their fullest capacity, and an air 
of activity, energy and prosperity was every- 
where apparent. 

In the summer of 1857, however, a casualty 
befel the rolling mill that threatened at the 
time to put a qietus to its career of prosperity 
and usefulness, and plunge the town back into 
the state of torpidity from which it was just 
emerging. About six o'clock, Saturday even- 



154 The History of 

ing, August 1st, of that year, the mill was 
discovered to be on fire. The fire had origi- 
nally broken out in a small out building con- 
tiguous to the mill, from which it was speedily 
communicated to the latter. The lumber of 
which the building was composed being thor- 
oughly dried by the sun of summer and the 
constant heat of the furnaces within, took fire 
with the quickness of tinder, and in a compar- 
atively few minutes after the first outbreak of 
the fire, the whole immense structure was en- 
veloped in flames. The tidings spread through 
the town with the greatest rapidity, and in a 
very brief space of time a vast concourse of 
spectators had collected to witness the destruc- 
tion they were powerless to prevent. The 
scene struck terror and dismay to the hearts 
of the assembled thousands.* 

The work of destruction, however, was soon 
over, and the spot where a few hours before 
had stood the mammoth rolling mill, was cov- 
ered only with blackened and smouldering 
ru»ins. The mill had contained twenty-one 
double and eleven single heating furnaces, and 
a large amount of valuable machinery, together 
with a set of rolls of an improved kind that 
bad been put up but a day or two before. The 

*See Cambria Tribune, August 5, 1857. 



The Conemaugh. 155 

loss amounted to fully one hundred thousand 
dollars ; and, but for the massive and durable 
character of the principal part of the machinery, 
it would have been vastly greater. 

The work of erecting a new mill was imme- 
diately commenced. The rubbish was cleared 
away and temporary wooden sheds were put 
up, in which business was at once resumed. 
These were replaced as fast as possible by a 
building of a more substantial and creditable 
character. By the latter part of the same 
month the works were again in operation as 
vigorously and prosperously as before, and the 
rebuilding of the mill carried on to a consider- 
able stage. It is a remarkable fact that this 
building, one of the largest and best constructed 
works of the kind in the world, was erected 
over the heads of the numerous workmen con- 
nected with the mill, without causing a single 
accident to any one, or interfering in any 
degree with the course of operations within. 

The new building is of brick, and is covered 
with a roof of slate. It stands upon the site 
of the old mill, as we have said, though it is 
somewhat larger in every direction. It was 
completed in 1858. In 1863, another mill, 
three hundred feet long by one hundred feet 
wide, was built. It stands parallel with the old 



156 Thb History of 

mill, and not more than thirty or forty feet 
distant, and is connected with it by a wing. 
Another mill is now in course of erection. It 
is attached to the northern end of the trans- 
verse portion of the old mill. It will coyer 
over an acre of ground. These buildings are 
designed to be all of the same style of archi- 
tecture and finish. There are now in operation 
twenty-two heating furnaces and thirty double 
puddling furnaces, a train of rail-rolls, squeezers, 
and other machinery necessary to a complete 
rolling mill. The machinery used in these 
works is of the most improved kinds. There 
are three vertical steam engines, and the fly- 
wheels are immense castings weighing forty 
tons, and make as high as seventy-five or eighty 
revolutions per minute. A writer in one of 
the daily papers published in Pittsburgh, thus 
describes the process of manufacturing railroad 
iron at this mill : " The ore is taken from the 
mines near the works, and after being put 
through the roasting process, which requires 
some time, it is thrown into the blast furnaces, 
of which there are four in number, capable 
of running one hundred and ninety tons 
each per week; thence the metal is transferred 
to the puddling furnaces, and after under- 
going the process of puddling, it goes thence 



The Conemaugh. 157 

through the squeezers, and thence through the 
puddle rolls, when it is ready for the heating 
furnaces. After being heated in the latter, it 
is prepared for its final rolling into bars." 
These works employ about twenty-seven hun- 
dred hands, and from three hundred to four 
hundred head of horses and mules. The 
amount of finished rails made here in the 
year 1864, was about forty thousand tons. 
The capacity of the works, when the part now 
building is completed, will be from 60 to 
70,000 tons. There are over thirty-five engines 
employed in driving the works ; the waste 
heat from the heating and puddling furnaces 
generating all the steam required. A visit to 
these works after night, when they are in full 
operation, causes one to think of old Vulcan 
and his assistants forging thunderbolts for Jove 
in their smithy under Mount Etna. 

In 1864, valuable additions were made to 
these works by the building of a new black- 
smith shop, machine and pattern shop, and a 
foundry. The blacksmith shop is an octagon 
of 74 feet diameter. It contains sixteen fires, 
which are blown by means of a large fan that 
is kept in motion by steam. The fire-places 
are smoke-consuming, and the interior of this 
model blacksmith shop, which is neatly paint- 



158 The History of 

ed and whitewashed, is as clean and tidy as a 
dry goods store. The machine and pattern 
shop is two hundred and twelve feet long, and 
sixty-four feet wide. The foundry is one hun- 
dred and forty-eight feet in length, and sev- 
enty in breadth. These new buildings all 
stand contiguous to the main works. They 
are of brick, and covered with slate, and are 
furnished with all appliances calculated to 
secure comfort to the workmen, and to facili- 
tate their work. 

Besides the large quantities of metal manu- 
factured for the use of these works by the 
furnaces mentioned above, vast amounts of 
pig metal, worn out railroad iron, car wheels, 
and old metal of a miscellaneous description, 
are used. The metal yard, where the shipping 
and unshipping of rails and iron are carried 
on, presents a scene of activity second only 
to the interior of the mill itself. Acres of 
ground, almost, are sometimes literally cover- 
ed to the depth of many feet with the new 
rails ready for transportation, and old metal 
brought there to be worked over. 

Perhaps no iron works in the world are so 
well situated with reference to the raw ma- 
terial to be worked up, as well as to facilities 
for shipping its products to market. The ore, 



The Conemaugh. 159 

coal, and so forth, necessary to the carrying 
on of the works are right at hand. Railways 
are constructed leading from the mines right 
to the place where these minerals are wanted, 
without having to transport them a long dis- 
tance, and subject them to repeated handling. 
The great Pennsylvania Railroad passes within 
a few rods of the works, and branches con- 
nect with it, thus affording excellent means 
for shipping the rails here manufactured to 
every section of the country. 

For the accommodation of the employees 
of this immense enterprise, comfortable dwell- 
ing houses have been erected by the company. 
These houses are to be counted by scores. 
They do not present that squalid, crowded, 
uncomfortable appearance which is character- 
istic of the tenement houses that are usually 
huddled around similar works. These houses 
are large and well constructed, and are in 
general better adapted than three-fourths of 
the dwelling houses any where. Each family 
has its suite of apartments distinct and sepa- 
rate from its neighbors, or in many instances 
a house to itself, roomy and comfortable. 
These dwellings are rented only to the em- 
ployees of the mill. The rents are not high, 
and the houses are kept in constant good 



160 The History of 

repair. This company can afford to be munifi- 
cent towards its employees, and it is so. 

Connected with these works are stores and 
shops of different kinds. There is a large dry 
goods store, a grocery, and a meat market. 
There is a blacksmith shop, a carpenter shop, 
and shops where shoemaking, tailoring, paint- 
ing, cabinet making, wagon making, harness 
making, and so forth, are carried on. These 
various establishments do an immense amount 
of business, which is felt all through the town. 
To take away the rolling mill and its influences, 
Johnstown would be something like the play 
of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet left out. 
It is the all-important feature of the town — 
the great centre of industry, from which all 
other enterprises receive their stimulus. The 
amount of business transacted by this estab- 
lishment may be judged from the fact that the 
internal revenue tax alone, paid by this com- 
pany for the year 1865, will be over tioo hun- 
dred thousand dollars, or more than one half of 
the total amount collected in the district 
during the year. "We venture to say that there 
are but few corporations in the country that 
pay a larger tax of this kind. The pre-emi- 
nent success of this establishment is greatly 
attributable to the excellent management of 



The Conemaugh. 161 

Daniel J. Morrell, Esq., the accomplislied resi- 
dent partner of the firm, and Mr. Gleorge 
Fritz, the efficient engineer of the works. In 
the hands of these gentlemen the Camhria 
Iron "Works have acquired an extent, com- 
pleteness, and influence unsurpassed by any 
similar works in the world. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OTHER EKTEEPEISES. 

The Johnstown Manufacturing Company. 

This company was organized in the year 1864. 
Its operations are necessarily yet in their in- 
cipiency. The company comprises some of 
the wealthiest and ablest members of the two 
greatest corporations in Pennsylvania — the 
Pennsylvania Eailroad and the Cambria Iron 
companies. The business of this company is 
at present limited to the Woolen Mill and the 
Steam Brichy^ard. The woolen factory, begun 
in 1864 and finished in 1865, is situated in the 
new and what promises to be the prosperous 
town of Woodvale. The main building is 
fifty by seventy-five feet, and to this is added 
a wing forty by twenty-five feet. The walls 
of the entire structure are of brick, and four 
stories high, the distance from fioor to floor 
being about twelve feet. The frame-work is 
of heavy timber.* The roof is covered with 

* Johnstown Tribune, Jan. 27th, 1865. 



The Conemaugh. 168 

slate, and the whole surmounted by a hand- 
some cupola. The woodwork is all neatly 
painted, and the building altogether presents 
an imposing appearance, standing, as it does, 
entirely detached from any other building. A 
boiler and dye-house, boarding-house, store- 
rooms, and dwelling houses, have also been 
erected, all on a scale corresponding with the 
extent of the factory, and the means of this 
company. The entire machinery of this large 
establishment will be of the most improved 
kinds. Constant employment will be given to 
about one hundred and fifty operatives. The 
agent for the factory advertises for 300,000 
pounds of wool per annum, thus encouraging 
the business of wool-growing in this and the 
adjacent counties. This business ought to 
be very productive in this mountainous re- 
gion, and with the reliable home market 
which this establishment will afford, it ought 
to become the most remunerative employment 
in which our farmers can engage. This fac- 
tory will gradually attract around it other in- 
dustrial establishments, until the pleasant 
little village of Woodvale will become the 
most busy and prosperous suburb of Johns- 
town. 

On the opposite side of the Conemaugh 



164 The History of 

from Woodvale is the extensive Steam Brick- 
yard of this company. The old Portage Eail- 
road passes through it, and a track leading 
from the brickyard to Conemaugh station, a 
distance of nearly a mile, where it intersects 
with the Pennsylvania Railroad, affords an 
easy means of transportation for the bricks 
made here. The extent of this establishment, 
and the modus operandi of brick making, as 
practiced here, may be seen from the follow- 
ing account chiefly compiled from the "Johns- 
town Tribune," January 27th, 1865: 

We found sixteen hands at work in the va- 
rious departments of the brickyard. The 
brick are manufactured by the patent steam 
machinery of Chambers, Brother & Co., of 
Philadelphia. The clay, which is obtained 
from a four-foot bed covering ten or fifteen 
:acres of the company's lands immediately ad- 
joining the factory, is converted into brick 
ready for drying at the rate of a cart-load 
every ten minutes, or forty-eight bricks every 
minute. The process is this: The clay is 
dumped from the cart into a hopper, whence, 
after being thoroughly pulverized, it is forced, 
in a continuous thread, through an aperture 
of proper shape, and is taken up by a leather 
or gum belt which is kept in motion by a series 



The Conemaugh. 165 

of little wheels. This belt carries the moulded 
clay to a revolving knife, which cuts off a brick 
at each revolution. The brick thus formed 
is picked up by another belt, which carries 
it under a box from which sand is constantly 
sifted, after which it is, in winter, carried to 
the drying-house by hand. There are two 
large drying-houses, each forty by seventy feet. 
The bricks are laid upon the floors, and dried 
ready for the kiln in about thirty-six hours. 
These floors are heated by flues — forty flues 
to each floor — the heat being generated by 
twenty-four furnaces in all. For summer dry- 
ing they have numerous spacious sheds. The 
bricks are burnt in the usual manner. They 
are much smoother than those made in the 
old-fashioned way, and are said to be much 
stronger and more durable. The company 
have just completed a new kiln of a capacity for 
burning 300,000 bricks at once. The number 
of hands now employed is about thirty. 

The Johnstawn Manufacturing Company 
possess a cash capital of two hundred thou- 
sand dollars. It and Woodvale, and the brick 
factory, are now established institutions of our 
town. Because of the magnitude of the en- 
terprise which they unitedly represent, and of 
the vast influence' for good they are destined 



166 The History of 

to exert upon the future of tliis locality, we 
have deemed them worthy of this extended 
notice. 

The engine used in this establishment is one 
of a forty horse power, and the pressure used 
in forcing the clay through the fannel, is equal 
to a weight of seven hundred tons, and yet 
the machinery works as smoothly, and with 
as much apparent ease, as the turning of a 
grindstone."^ 

With all these vast facilities, these brick- 
making works are constantly kept in opera- 
tion to their full capacity, and yet the supply 
is unequal to the demand. This fact alone is 
one of the strongest evidences of the won- 
derful improvements continually going on in 
Johnstown and vicinity ; for scarcely a brick 
of all the hundreds of thousands made here 
every month is ever carried to a distance. 

The Johnstown Mechanical "Works. 

This establishment is located in Conemaugh 
Borough. As the best sketch of its extent 
and design, we present the following, which 
has been compiled from the "Johnstown Tri- 
bune," and the "Johnstown Democrat," 1865: 

* Johnstown Democrat, 1865. 



The Conbmaugh. 16T 

The ground upon which, the Works are 
located embraces seven lots, fronting 350 feet 
on Portage street and running back 180 feet to 
the Little Conemaugh. On the northwest 
corner stands the car and machine shop, the 
dimensions of which are 136 by 100 feet, the 
principal entrance being from Portage street. 
The old foundry stands in line with the new 
building, a private street about fifty feet wide 
dividing them. Attached to the foundry is 
the office. On the northeast coiner of the 
company's grounds is located a new stable, and 
on the southeast corner there will soon be placed 
the dwelling-house for the night watchman, 
which now stands a few rods nearer the foundry. 
The rest of the space is occupied as a lumber 
yard and by tracks connecting the foundry with 
the machine shop. 

The plans of the company embrace the tear- 
ing down of the foundry building, and the 
erection in its stead, but at right angles with 
it, of an entirely new structure, to be 125 feet 
long, 42 feet wide, 20 feet high to the eaves, 
and 42 feet to the comb of the roof. This 
structure is to contain the foundry proper and 
the blacksmith shop. In the latter will be eight 
fires. Attached to the eastern end of the 
building will be an L, 40 feet long by 12 feet 



168 The History op 

wide, whicli will contain tlie founder's cnpola 
and the core oven. The cupola will be large 
enough to melt four tons of pig metal at one 
heat. The whole structure will be of bricky 
covered with slate, and surmounted by an 
apex twelve feet high, running the whole 
length. 

In the machine shop there are in full opera- 
tion four lathes for turning iron, one iron planer, 
two drill presses, one screw-cutting machine, 
one punching machine, and one casting cleaner. 
In the wood shop are two circular saws, two 
planing machines — one a Daniels and the other 
a Woodworth, one side planer, one sash, 
moulding and slat machine, one power morti- 
sing machine, two cut-off saws, two gig saws, 
one tenonmg machine, one foot mortising 
machine, one boring and shaping machine, and 
two wood lathes. 

The firm has over $50,000mvested, and they 
intend to carry on a foundry, smithshop, ma- 
chine shop, make railroad cars, manufacture 
pumps, plane flooring and weather-boarding, 
make cutting boxes, and, in short, make every 
thing that a business community desires to be 
done, all with choice lumber well seasoned by 
steam. A railroad w^ill pass each side of the 
building, thus facilitating transportation. 



Thb Conemaugh. 169 

Such are the Johnstown Mechanical Works,- 
past, present, and prospective. The organiza- 
tion of the company, and the tearing down of 
the old foundry to make room for the improve- 
ments we have noted, mark an important era 
in the history of Johnstown, and help to fix 
with unerring certainty its destiny as one of 
the principal manufacturing towns in the 
Union. 

This organization was formed in 1864. For-' 
tune or misfortune forestalled the company in 
their design of tearing away the old foundry, 
as mentioned ahove, for on the night of the 5th 
of June, 1865, it took fire and hurned to the 
ground. The work of building a new foundry 
on the extensive scale above described, is in 
progress. 

McConaughy's Steam Tannery. 

This establishment stands on the right bank 
of the Conemaugh, between the brids'e and 
the aqueduct that connect Johnstown proper 
with Millville borough. It was built by J. P, 
McConaughy, Esq., in 1861, and supplanted 
the old establishment that occupied the corner 
of "Walnut and Canal streets, in Johnstown. 
The chief part of this building is of brick, three 
stories high, fronting fifty-two feet on Cinder 



ITO The History op 

street, and extending back along the river 
seventy-five feet. In tlie rear of this building 
is a two-story extension of frame, fitty-two by 
one hundred and twelve feet. Altogether, 
this is one of the largest buildings in the town. 

The ground floor of the front part of this 
establishment is occupied by vats and the steam 
engine. The vats are fifty-four in number. 
The engine is of twenty horse-power, and runs 
the bark mill, the machinery for rolling the 
leather, and so forth, and is also used for heat- 
ing the liquors in the vats. The second story 
embraces a counting-room, warerooms, and so 
on. The third story is in one large room, 
exclusively used as a drying room, except one 
corner, in which is the rolling machinery. In 
the frame part are the leaches in which the 
liquors used in the business are made. The 
leaches are ten in number. These leaches and 
vats are all connected together by subterranean 
conduits. TJp-stairs in this building is the bark 
mill. The rest of this building, as well as a 
large shed adjacent, is used for stowing bark 
in. About one thousand cords of bark are 
used every year. 

This establishment annually finishes not less 
than eight thousand sides ot heavy sole leather. 
This leather is of the very best quality, and is 
manufactured exclusively for the eastern mar- 



Thb ConemjlUgh. 171 

ket. This is by far the largest establishment 
of the kind in this section of country. 

Other Tanneries. 

There are numerous other tanneries in the 
valley of this river. The largest of these, after 
McConaughy's, we believe, are Levergood's 
and Dibert's, in Johnstown, the one at Blairs- 
ville, and the one at Hillside. Smaller estab- 
lishments of this kind are to be found in nearly 
every village in the four counties. Tanning 
has been largely followed in this part of the 
country from its earliest settlement. One great 
incentive thereto has always unquestionably 
been the abundance of bark to be found on 
every hand. Within late years the shipping 
of this article to distant points has been exten- 
sively carried on, and it is becoming noticeably 
scarce where it was formerly to be found in 
unlimited abundance. It now sells in Johns- 
town, and other places along the line of the 
railroad, as high as eight dollars per cord. 

Haws* Cement Mill. 

This establishment stands on the left bank 
of the Conemaugh, a short distance below its 



172 Thi History of 

confluence with the Stony Creek, and just at 
the end of the Iron Bridge. It is situated on 
a hlufl* perhaps fifty feet ahove the water. 

A mill for the manufacture of hydraulic 
cement was established in Johnstown by the 
Commonwealth a great number of years ago. 
The cement made by it was used exclusively 
on the public works. This mill stood at the 
eastern end of the aqueduct, and was run by 
water conducted from the canal for that purpose. 
It was a small affair. It subsequently passed 
into other hands, and about the year 1852, it 
was transferred to the spot where it now stands. 
In 1857, it came into the hands of A. J. Haws, 
Esq., the present proprietor. 

Though this enterprise is known simply as 
the Cement Mill, it is really something more. 
In it are made hydraulic cement, fire brick, and 
ground fire clay. The machinery of the mill 
is of the most ponderous character, and is run 
by an eighty horse-power engine. The amount 
of business annually done at this mill may be 
set down at 7,500 barrels of cement, 1,200,000 
fire brick, and 600 tons of ground fire clay. 
The ground fire clay is used for making the 
mortar in which the fire brick are laid. 

The material of which the fire brick are made 
is called whetstone clay, and is found at Min- 



The Conemaugh. 173 

ersil Point, about nine miles east of the works* 
In the hill just behind the works is a vein ot 
cement stone, seven feet thick, and resting 
upon it is a vein of excellent coal three and a 
half feet thick. Some sixty feet above is 
another vein of coal two and a half feet thick, 
and just under it a three foot vein of plastic 
lire clay. Above these again is another vein 
of coal four feet thick. Such an abundance of 
minerals in the near neighborhood makes this 
one of the very best localities that could be 
desired for such an establishment. The rail- 
road, passing, as it does, within fifty feet of the 
mill, affords the best facilities for bringing the 
whetstone clay to the works, and for exporting 
the cement, and so forth, to market. The 
Cambria Iron Works are supplied with fire 
brick, cement, and ground fire clay by this milL 

Oil Wells. 

We have already stated that strong indica- 
tions of oil exist in the valley of the Cone- 
maugh. In the search for this article many 
wells have been sunk. The traveler through 
this valley will frequently meet with them. 
Lofty derricks stand throughout the country 
as plentifully as gibbets in England during 



174 The History of 

tlie reign of Queen Elizabeth. They are to 
be seen by the water-courses, by the roadside, 
and in lonely fields. They have generally 
been abandoned, their owners having verified 
the saying of Banquo — 

"The earth hath bubbles as the water has." 

These Avells, we believe, are most numerous 
in the neighborhood of Blairsville. Some of 
them are promising enterprises, oil having 
been actually obtained, though aa yet not in 
sufficient quantities to make them profitable. 
There is no doubt that oil abounds in the val- 
ley of this river, and that it will finally be 
made available by capital and perseverance. 

Saw Mills. 

Saw mills are very numerous in the section 
of country embraced in the Conemaugh val- 
ley. Several of these are extensive enter- 
prises. Lumbering, in the northern part of 
Indiana and Cambria counties, is a very flour- 
ishing and important business. Timber, in 
nearly every portion of the valley, is sufficient- 
ly abundant to render the business of sawing 
remunerative. Large quantities of hemlock, 
pine, ash, cherry, and poplar lumber, are ex- 
ported. 



CHAPTER X. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 

In tliis cliapter we shall present biograpliical 
Bketclies of some of tlie prominent early settlera 
of tlie Conemaugli valley. 

Rev. D. a. Gtallitzin. 

Rev. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin died at 
Loretto on the 6th of May, 1840. For forty- 
two years he exercised pastoral functions in 
Cambria county. The venerable deceased was 
born in 17T0, at Munster, in Germany. His 
father, Prince De Gallitzin, ranked among the 
highest nobility in Russia. His mother was 
the daughter of Field Marshal General de 
Schmeltan, a celebrated officer under Frederick 
the Great. Her brother fell at the battle of 
Jena. The deceased held a high commission 
in the Russian army from his infancy. Europe, 
in the early part of his life, was desolated by 
war — the French revolution burst like a volcano 
upon that convulsed continent : it offered no 
facilities or attractions for travel, and it was 



176 The History of 

determined that the young Prince de Gallitzin 
ehould visit America. He landed in Baltimore 
in August, 1782, in company with Rev. Mr. 
Brosius. By a train of circumstances in which 
the hand of Providence was strikingly visible, 
his mind was directed to the ecclesiastical state, 
and he renounced forever his brilliant prospects. 
Already endowed with a splendid education, 
lie was the more prepared to pursue his eccle- 
eiastical studies under the venerable Bishop 
Carroll, at Baltimore, with facility and euccess. 
Having completed his theological course, he 
Bpent some time on the mission in Maryland. 

In the year 1789, he directed his course to 
Hie Alleghany mountain, and found that por- 
tion of it which now constitutes Cambria county 
a perfect wilderness, almost without inhabitants 
or habitations. After incredible labor and 
privations, and expending a princely fortune, 
lie succeeded in making "the wilderness blos- 
som as a rose." His untiring zeal has collected 
about Loretto, his late residence, a Catholic 
population of three or four thousand. He not 
only extended the church by his missionary 
toils, but also illustrated and defended the 
truth by several highly useful publications. 
His "Defence of Catholic Principles" has gained 
merited celebrity both here and in Europe. 



The Conemaugh. 177 

Li this extraordinary man we have not only 
to admire his renunciation of the brightest 
hopes and prospects ; his indefatigable zeal — 
but something greater and rarer — his wonderful 
humility. 'No one could ever learn from him 
or his mode of life, what he had been, or what 
he had exchanged for privation and poverty. 

To intimate to him that you were aware of 
his condition, would be sure to pain and dis- 
please him. He who might have reveled in 
the princely halls of his ancestors, was content 
to spend thirty years in a rude log cabin, almost 
denying himself the common comforts of life, 
that he might be able to clothe the naked 
members of Jesus Christ, the poor and dis- 
tressed. Few have left behind them such 
examples of charity and benevolence. On the 
head of no one have been invoked so many 
blessings from the mouths of widows and 
orphans. It may be literally said of him " if his 
heart had been been made of gold he would 
have disposed of it all in charity to the poor."* 

To this sketch may be properly appended 
the following: 

Princess Amalia Gallitzin, a lady distin- 
guished for talent and a strong propensity to 
mysticism. She was the daughter of count 

* Mountaineer, May 14, 1840. 



178 The History op 

Sclimeltan, aud lived, during a part of her 
youth, at the court of the wife of prince Fer- 
dinand, brother of Frederick the Great. She 
was married to the Russian prince, Gallitzin ; 
and, as much of his time was passed in trav- 
eling, she chose Munster, in the center of Ger- 
many, lor her permanent residence Here she 
assembled around her some of the most dis- 
tinguished men of the age, Hemsterhuis, Ha- 
mann, Jacobi, Goethe, Furstenberg, and others. 
The two first were her most intimate friends. 
She was an ardent Catholic, and strongly giv- 
en to making proselytes. With the exception 
of her excessive religious zeal, she was an ex- 
cellent lady in every respect. In the education 
of her children, she followed Rousseau's sys- 
tem. The princess is the Diotima to whom 
Hemsterhuis, under the name of DioJdas, ad- 
dressed his work On Atheism. She died, in 
1806, near Munster. Her only son was a 
missionary in America.* 

General Arthur St. Clair. 

General St. Clair was born at Edinburg, in 
Scotland, and accompanied the fleet under 
Admiral Boscawen to America, in 1755. He 

* Uncyclopsedia Americana, VoL V. p. 361. 



The Conemaugh. 179 

was a lieutenant in the British army under 
General "Wolfe. When the French war was 
closed, he had command of Fort Ligonier 
assigned to him ; and also received a grant of 
one thousand acres of land in that vicinity, 
which he fancifully chose to lay out in the 
form of a circle. Here he settled, and was 
appointed to several civil offices under the 
government of Pennsylvania. When the 
Kevolution commenced, he embraced the 
American cause, and in January, 1776, wa& 
appointed to command a battalion of Penn- 
Bylvania militia. He was engaged in the 
expedition to Canada, and was second in com- 
mand in the proposed attack on the British 
post at Trois Kiviers. He was afterwards in 
the battle of Trenton, and had the credit of 
suggesting the attack on the British at Prince- 
ton, which proved so fortunate. In August, 
1776, he was appointed a brigadier, and in 
February, 1777, major-general. He was the 
commanding officer at Ticonderoga when that 
post was invested by the British, and evacu- 
ated it July 6, 1777, with such secrecy that a 
considerable part of the public stores were 
safely conveyed away. Charges of cowardice, 
treachery, and incapacity were brought against 
him in consequence, but a court of inquiry 



180 The History of 

honorably acquitted him. He afterwards 
joined the army under General Greene, in the 
south, and at the close of the war returned to 
his former residence. In 1783, he was a 
member of the Executive Council of Penn- 
sylvania, and the same year was elected presi- 
dent of the Cincinnati Society, of that State. 
In 1785, he was elected to Congress, and in 
February, 1787, was appointed president of 
that body. In October following, he was ap- 
pointed governor of the territory of the United 
States northwest of the Ohio, an office w^hich 
he retained until ISTovember, 1803, when he 
was removed by Jefierson in consequence of 
the too free expression of his political opin- 
ions. He had previously, in 1790, been the 
unsuccessful candidate of the federal party, 
against Gen. Mifflin, for the office of governor 
of Pennsylvania, under the new constitution. 
In 1791, he commanded an army against the 
Miami Indians, and was defeated on the 4th 
of iTovember, "with the loss of six or seven 
hundred men. He was on that occasion worn 
down by a fever, but neverthless exerted him- 
self with a courage and presence of mind 
worthy of a better fate. He was borne on a 
litter to the different points of the battle- 
ground, and in this condition directed the 



The Conbmaugh 181 

movements of the troops. On this occasion 
a portion of the citizens were loud in their 
censure of his conduct; but a committee of 
inquiry of the House of Representatives ac- 
quitted him from blame. He resigned his 
commission as major-general in 1792. With 
the profuse liberality of a soldier, he became 
reduced in his old age to poverty, and resided 
in a dreary part of Westmoreland county, on 
the Chestnut Eidge, a little south of the turn- 
pike. He applied to Congress for relief. His 
claims on the sympathy of his country were 
listened to with indifference, and admitted 
with reluctance. After a long suspense, he 
obtained a pension of sixty dollars per month. 
He died August 31st, 1818, in his eighty-fourth 
year. * 

Richard B. McCabe, Esq. 

Richard Butler McCabe, Esq., first saw the 
light in the county of Cumberland, now Perry, 
in Pennsylvania, on the 5th day of August, 
1792. His grandfather, Owen McCabe — in the 
Colonial Records erroneously called McKibe — 
was a native of Tyrone county, Ireland, and 
came to this country at an early age. His first 

♦Day's Hist. Col. pp. 686, 687. 



182 The Histoky of 

liome was in Lancaster countj, where lie 
intermarried with. Catharine Sears, and subse- 
quently moved with his wife and eldest son, 
James, the father of Richard, to Sherman's 
Valley; these two were the first white men who 
settled in the valley. Their settlement was 
named Tyrone township, in memory of the 
childhood's home of the elder McCabe. Ty- 
rone Iron Works and Tyrone City, on the 
Central Railroad, also derive their name from 
the same hardy pioneer. 

The life of a settler in that unprotected fron- 
tier country, constantly exposed to hostile 
incursions of Indians, full of peril and hard- 
ships of every kind, was well calculated to 
educate him to endure with patience and 
fortitude the toils and privations of camp life. 
"When the "War of Independence broke out, 
the brave old pioneer, with two hardy and 
stalwart sons, Robert and William, in company 
with Mcholas Hughs, Richard's maternal 
grandfather, and two equally gallant sons, 
shouldered arms and went to Bunker Hill. 
This event was celebrated at the time in verse, 
by a rustic poet of the neighborhood. 

From the family of the deceased's mother 
'descended the founders of many distinguished 
and wealthy families of the south and west. 



The Conemaugh. 183 

James McCabe, tlie father of Eicliard, was 
regarded by bis cotemporariea as a man of tbe 
purest integrity, scrupulously conscientious in 
all bis dealings, brave, kind, and generous. 
Before Forbes approached Fort Duquesne, or 
Armstrong burnt Kittanning, a company was 
formed at or near Carlisle, the first that ever, 
in Pennsylvania, pursued the Indians as far as 
the Alleghany Mountains. James McCabe 
was a lieutenant in that company. The In- 
dians had been down in Sherman's Valley, 
plundering, capturing, and destroying. The 
company pursued them as far as the heads of 
Blacklick, in Cambria county; here they 
halted, being without guides, and not knowing 
how many foes they might have to encounter 
west of the mountains, and turning back, 
started for the Muncey towns, on the Susque- 
hanna. 

In 1795, the father of Richard died, leaving 
the child in the exclusive care and control of 
the widowed mother. The population being 
sparse, she was almost his only companion, 
and nobly did she perform the sacred duty 
which her Heavenly Father had assigned her. 
***** 

The period of his early boyhood passed ; he 
left his quiet and romantic home in the coun- 



184 The History op 

try, and was bound an apprentice to a carpen- 
ter[; but not liking tbis occupation, be went to 
Pbiladelpbia. Tbe war of 1812, baving just 
broken out, be entered bimself on board a 
privateer wbicb was about starting on a cruise; 
but one of bis brotbers learning tbe facts, pre- 
vented bis departure. Tbis was a most fortu- 
nate occurrence, as tbe vessel proved to be a 
pirate craft. Tbus diverted from bis purpose, 
be went to Ricbmond, Ya., wbere, itistbougbt, 
be read law for a sbort time. Returning again 
to tbe interior of Pennsylvania, be became 
clerk in a store. In 1815, be went to Pitts- 
burg, passing tbrougb tbis county, [Indiana,] 
tben almost a wilderness ; tbere be entered a 
counting bouse, but soon returning to tbe 
country, be passed a few years as clerk, and 
finally manager, of several iron works. 

Marrying about 1820, be removed to Har- 
risburg, wbere be entered tbe office of tbe 
Secretary of State. Wbile tbus engaged, be 
returned to tbe study of tbe law, under tbe 
supervision of tbe Attorney General of tbe 
State, Mr. Elder. After bis admission to tbe 
bar, be went to Huntingdon, and commenced 
bis professional career. Subsequently be re- 
moved to tbis county, w^bere be resided until 
bis deatb — a period of more tban tbirty years. 



The Conbmaugh. 185 

He enjoyed for the most of the time a lucra- 
tive practice. During one term he served as 
prothonotary of the county, and performed 
the duties of the office to the entire satisfac- 
tion of his fellow citizens. His antiquarian 
researches were extensive ; no man knew more 
of the early history of our State. He was a 
frequent contributor to the periodical and 
newspaper literature of his time; his style of 
composition was simple and unadorned. He 
was an admirable writer of narrative, and his 
Brady, and other sketches, found in almost all 
histories of Pennsylvania, are well known to 
every school boy. At the close of his life he 
was engaged upon a biography of the Priest 
of the Alleghany Mountains, the Russian 
prince, Gallitzin, which promised to be a most 
charming and interesting work. 

In his social intercourse, Mr. McCabe was 
kind and obliging. His charity knew no 
bounds; he gave treely, without hope, desire, 
or expectation of reward. He did not permit 
his left hand to know what his right did, and 
many a widow and orphan had cause to bless, 
without knowing who was the benefactor. 
Modest almost to a fault, he abhorred parade 
and show, and desired that his place of burial 
should not be marked with stone or monu- 



186 The History of 

ment, only by trees and flowers. In the family 
circle lie was uniformly kind, gentle, and 
cheerful, never permitting an ill-natured word 
against a neighbor to be spoken in his pre- 
sence without rebuke. In politics and religion, 
lie was much in advance of the present age. 
He spoke with scornful contempt of the tricks 
of mere politicians. [N'o inducements of 
worldly advancement or fortune were suf- 
ficient to seduce him for a moment from the 
path of rectitude. ISTo man can justly charge 
him with a single departure trom truth and 
honor. He died January 10th, 1860, in the 
eighty-eighth year of his age. * 

Hon. Moses Canan. 

The old men, whose histories connect the 
present generation with the past, are rapidly 
passing away. Soon the last one, whose birth 
dates back into the previous century, will be 
gone. 

Conspicuous among this class of deaths is 
that of Hon. Moses Canan, who died Septem- 
ber 29, 1863, in the 80th year of his age, more 
than half of whose long life was spent in Cam- 
bria county, in active participation in all things 

* Blairsville Record, Jan. 25, 1860. 



The CoNEMi.uGH. 187 

•connected with the prosperity of its people. 
This fact will justify us in occupying more than 
the usual space, in our paper, in giving a sketch 
of the life and character of the deceased. 

Judge Canan was horn in Huntingdon county, 
Pa., March 1st, 1784. After enjoying the ad- 
vantages of the best schools in the borough of 
Huntingdon, at the age of sixteen he entered 
Dickinson College at Carlisle, and enjoyed the 
advantages of that excellent institution for four 
years. He then entered the law office of Judge 
Kawle, of Philadelphia, and pursued his studies 
there for three years. In 1807, he was admitted 
to the bar, soon after married, and at once en- 
tered into an extensive and lucrative practice 
in Huntingdon and adjoining counties. 

A short time prior to the breaking out of the 
war of 1812, the young attorney had located 
himself on a beautiful farm on the "blue Juni- 
ata," near Alexandria, in his native county, and 
devoted a portion of his time to agricultural 
pursuits. Surrounded by all the luxuries of 
life, in the receipt of an ample income, enjoy- 
ing all the bliss and happiness of domestic life 
in the society of his youthful companion and 
two little daughters, his was a home ardently 
to be desired. But, in the midst of all this 
domestic bliss, he heard his country call for 



188 The History of 

brave men to repel an insolent foe, that would 
trail, in foul dishonor, the glorious emblem of 
his country's greatness. In answer to the call 
he voluntarily forsook the comforts of home, 
the society of his loved ones, and organizing a 
company of volunteers, composed of his kins- 
men and his boyhood companions, in the win- 
ter of 1812-13, marched to the JS'iagara frontier. 

His love of military life was always of the 
most ardent kind, and he freely contributed of 
his time and means informing and keeping up 
military organizations. For many years he 
was major of a battalion, Cambria county 
volunteers. He organized, and for years com- 
manded, the "Cambria Guards," a company of 
the ''Frosty Sons of Thunder," which was the 
germ from which sprang a company that aided 
in planting the stars and stripes in the " Halls 
of the Montezumas," as well as another which 
has nobly defended the old flag, in many a hard 
fought battle, since the commencement of the 
present unholy rebellion. 

So strong was the love of the deceased for 
military life, and so true his patriotism and 
devotion to country, that the infirmities of age, 
alone, prevented him from again buckling on 
his sword, and rushing to the defence of the 
old flag when wantonly assailed by domestic 



Thb Conemaugh. 189 

traitors. Although too old to take an active 
part, his sympathies and his prayers were with 
and for his country, and to his latest hour he 
indulged the fond hope that the Union would 
be preserved. 

He attended the first court held in Cambria 
county, in 1807, and for more than fifty years, 
with one or two exceptions, was present at 
every term. In the spring of 1818, he took 
up his residence at Ebensburg, and became fully 
identified with all the interests of the county. 
His practice at this time, and for many years 
subsequently, was very large in Cambria and 
adjoining counties. He was retained on every 
important suit, and was proverbial for the great 
care with which he prepared his cases, and 
for the fidelity with which he watched over the 
interests of his clients. His even temper, 
sociability, and kindness of heart made him a 
favorite with all the members of the bar. He 
retained their esteem during a long life, and, 
as a body, they followed him to the tomb. 

Extensive as was his practice, and greatly 
occupied as was his time in the duties of his 
profession, yet his great industry — his willing- 
ness to work late and early, connected with 
his regularity of habits, enabled him to devote 
considerable time to literary pursuits. For 
about 30 years he was more or less connected 



190 The History of 

with the editorial department of Bome one of 
the county papers. He was frequcnitly called 
upon to deliver Fourth of July orations, and 
lectures upon different subjects. In the prepa- 
ration of his editorials, orations, and lectures,, 
he bestowed great care. His style, as a writer, 
was concise and pointed, and his productions 
will compare favorably with those of the best 
writers of his day. 

In all things calculated to secure the im- 
provement of the material condition of the 
county, he freely gave his time and money. 
Ever anxious to elevate the moral condition of 
the people, his voice, his pen, and his purse, 
were always freely employed in advocating 
and supporting all movements in that direc- 
tion. But, prominent among all others, was. 
his desire to improve the intellectual condition 
of the people. His efforts in this behalf were 
unceasing, and the results were such as to 
redound to his credit, and should cause, not 
only his family, but the present and future 
generations, to revere his memory. Through 
his efforts an academy was established at the 
county seat, endowed by the State, and sup- 
plied with the best teachers the country could 
afford. This institution gave to the country 
many young men who have since distinguished 
themselves in the pulpit, at the bar, in the 



The Conemaugh. 191 

army, and in the varied duties of life. Upon 
the first introduction of the free school system 
it was violently opposed. In the front ranks 
of its friends stood Judge Canan, who, sacri- 
ficing political preferment, and every selfish 
consideration, freely committed himself to the 
task of defending the system and laboring for 
its success. For many years he was a member 
of the Board of School Directors, and lived 
to see the system overcome the violent oppo- 
sition of its enemies, and secure an abiding 
place in the affections of the people. 

A long life, usefully spent, is now ended. 
The faithful attorney and upright judge — the 
useful citizen and pure philanthropist — the 
kind husband and indulgent father — the de- 
voted patriot and consistent christian — has 
departed. It can be truly said, he died as he 
lived, ivithoiit cm enemy. He is gone from our 
midst, but the memory of his usefulness — his 
kindness of heart — his devotion to his coun- 
try, his family, and his God — will live after 
him. * 

Hon. John Cunningham. 

John Cunningham was born near ISTew Lon- 
don, Chester county. Pa., February 17, 1794. 

* Cambria Tribune, October 30, 1863. 



192 The History of 

About three years afterwards he moved to 
Kishacoquillas valley, Mifflin county, and there, 
at the age of sixteen, it was his mistortune to 
be left fatherless; from that day he was cast 
upon his own resources, not only for his own 
maintenance, hut, being the oldest son, for the 
maintenance also of a dependant mother and 
several brothers and sisters. He at once 
devoted himself to learning a trade, and, 
this accomplished, he labored for several 
years as a journeyman to obtain the means 
to support his mother and her family. In 
the spring of 1818, he removed to this coun- 
ty [Indiana]; and in the fall of the same 
year, took up his residence in this town. 
Having made a profession of religion before 
lie came here, he at once identified himself 
with the few in the neighborhood who loved 
the Savior; through his influence, in part, a 
prayer-meeting was established and kept up, 
and occasional preaching secured, until in 
September, 1822, the Presbyterian Church of 
West Union (the name and location were 
afterwards changed to Blairsville,) was estab- 
lished. From that day to this our departed 
father has been identified with the existence 
and prosperity of this church. He was one 
of the original thirty-three who covenanted 



The Conemaugh. 193 

with each other and with God to walk togther 
as a Church of Christ. Of these but five or 
SIX are now on earth ; but three are now mem- 
bers of this church, and but one of them has 
been connected with it all the time since its 
foundation, at the organization of the church. 
Mr. Cunningham, though then comparatively 
a young man, was chosen and ordained one of 
its Euling Elders. This office he held for 
nearly forty-three years, and how well and 
faithfully he discharged his duties, you are 
all witnesses. Pre-eminently wise in counsel, 
prudent in action, self-denying in labor, and 
spiritual in heart, he was almost from the first, 
and has ever continued to be, the recognized 
leader and main dependence of the Session. 
For thirty years he was the superintendent, 
and almost the life, of the Sabbath School. 
He was for a much longer period the centre 
around which the prayer-meeting lived and 
had its being. He has been the main pillar 
of this part of the church of Christ: the head, 
the father of this congregation, to whom we 
all looked with the confidence and aftection 
of children; and now, as our eyes follow his 
prepared flight, we instinctively cry, with the 
anguish of a bereaved Elisha, ^'My father, 
my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horse- 



194 The History of 

man thereof!" On whom shall the mantle of 
our departing Elijah fall ? Help, Lord, for 
the goodly man ceaseth ; for the faithful fail 
from among the children of men. 

^N'ot less closely has our venerated father 
been connected with the growth of this town* 
He came here when the place where Blairsville 
now stands, was an almost unbroken forest. 
He built and used as a workshop the second 
tenement which was erected in it, and cut with 
his hand-axe a path diagonally across the town 
(a town then only on paper) from his own lot 
to the lot of Mrs. Shields, which contained the 
only other house in the place. From that day 
to this he has been identified with the material, 
intellectual, moral, and religious welfare of the 
town. He had a large part in all plans and 
labors for its improvement. He was trusted 
and honored by his fellow-citizens by being 
called to a large share of the official duties 
connected with the government. 

Nor was his influence circumscribed by the 
limits of his own immediate borough and 
neighborhood. The county and the State felt 
it; the dignity and honor with which for a 
number of years he filled the position of Asso- 
ciate Judge was one of the ways in which this 
influence was exerted. It is not too much to 



The Conemaugh. 195 

say, that sucli were his endowments of mind 
that if he had enjoyed in early life the advan- 
tages of education which are now within the 
reach of every child in the State , his name 
would have been known and his influence 
largely felt in the councils of the nation. He 
was possessed of a wise and large hearted pa- 
triotism. iN'o man who has passed from earth 
since the struggles of our country with perfid- 
ious treason and gigantic rebellion began, has 
left a fairer record on this point than he. I do 
not consider it improper here to say that I 
know the joyful satisfaction and honest pride 
he felt, when two of his sons went out as repre- 
sentatives of the family in the armies of the 
nation. "You are doing right. It is your 
duty to go — it is the duty of all to go who 
can." These were his unselfish— his right 
loyal— his noble words. Such were his feel- 
ings at the commencement of the war, and they 
remained unchanged, except in ever-increasing 
intensity, to the last. It was with him a cause 
of devout thankfulness to God that he lived, 
like our martyred President, to see rebellion 
receive its death blow, and to behold his coun- 
try rise in majesty and glory above the dark 
clouds that have for years enveloped her. 
Such was he as a citizen, and altogether it is 



196 The History op 

no disparagement to others to say, that no man 
has held a higher place in the confidence and 
esteem of all who knew him than he, that none 
was more beloved, especially by the poor, the 
■v\ddow, the orphan, and the afflicted than he. 
The natural traits of his character were marked. 
They were gravity, integrity, firmness, straight- 
forwardness, candor, geaerosity, benevolence, 
humilty. These natural endowments were 
largely sanctified and directed by divine grace. 
His religious character was one of great sym- 
metry and consistency. It was one which 
pre-eminently approved itself to the judgment 
of all who knew him. It bore successfully the 
applications of that severest of tests given by 
the Great Master himself. "By their fruits ye 
shall know them." It was not one which de- 
pended for the demonstration of its genuine- 
ness on frames and feelings and ecstacies. 
He died April 26, 1865, in the 72d year of his 
age.* 

Christian Horner, Esq. 

Christian Horner, Esq., died at his residence, 
in Jenner township, Somerset county, on Fri- 
day, the 6th of October, 1865. Born in Frank- 

* From a Discourse by Rev. George Hill, of Blairsville. 



The Conemaugh 197 

lin county, on the 25th day of January, 1778, 
he was, therefore, 87 years, 8 months and 12 
days old at the date of his death. 

Mr. Horner was married the first time in 
1799, by Rev. Mr. Stoy, the founder of Stoys- 
town, in Somerset county. The same year he 
removed within the present limits of Cambria 
county, and first located near where the reser- 
voir now is. He was compelled to camp out 
with his family, under a tree, till he had a 
cabin erected to protect them from the winter. 
This was the year before Johnstown was laid out 
by Joseph Johns, and several years before Cam- 
bria county was erected. Subsequently, 'Squire 
Horner, as he was familiarly called, removed 
to the farm on which Joseph Geis now lives, 
in Eichland township, and within three miles 
of Johnstown. Here he resided till 1847, 
when he removed to Somerset county. Mr. 
Horner, in common with the residents of Cam- 
bria county, at that early day, had to endure 
great hardships. Salt could not be procured 
at any nearer point than Bloody Run, in Bed- 
ford county. Here the settlers, their only 
road a narrow bridle path, would annually 
resort, and exchange their furs for iron and 
salt, and then lead their horses, laden with these 
necessary articles, over the mountains to their 



198 The History of 

homes, in the then wilderness. Salt at that 
day cost four dollars per bushel, and money 
was much scarcer than greenbacks are now. 

John Horner, the father of Christian Hor- 
ner, at an early day, dedicated the lot on the 
bank of Stony Creek, now adjoining Sandy 
Yale Cemetery, as a family burying ground. 
The first person buried in this lot, was a 
daughter of Christian Horner, who died some 
time in the year 1800. 

In 1809, Gov. Snyder commissioned Mr. 
Horner a Justice of the Peace for Conemaugh 
township, Cambria county. It will give some 
idea of Esq. Horner's jurisdiction, when we 
state the fact that Conemaugh township then 
embraced the territory in which are now inclu- 
ded the townships of Conemaugh, Croyle, Sum- 
merhill, Jackson, Taylor, Yoder, and Richland, 
and the boroughs of Johnstown, Conemaugh, 
Prospect, Millville, Cambria, and Wilmore. 
This office he held until his removal to Somerset 
county, in 1847. 

Mr. Horner was married the second time in 
1828, and leaves a widow to survive him at the 
age of 82 years. He had in all fifteen children, 
eleven of whom are living. He also leaves one 
hundred and seventeen grand-children, and 
one hundred and two great grand-children to 
.mourn his death. 



The Conemaugh. 199 

Esq. Horner's remains were brought to this 
place, and interred in the Horner family bury- 
ing ground, where his daughter has slept for 
65 years, on Monday, the 9th inst. A large 
number of our citizens turned out to pay their 
last tribute of respect to his memory. 

Thus, at a ripe old age, has passed away 
another of Cambria's pioneers. Soon the last 
will be gone, and then will perish much that 
ought to be carefully gathered for the pages of 
history. A narrative of the trials undergone, 
and the scenes witnessed by Mr. Horner, in the 
early days of the settlement of this county, 
would make a volume at once eloquent and 
thrilling, a volume which our sons and daugh- 
ters could read with far more profit, than any- 
thing presented in the pages of fiction. We 
little know, and still less appreciate the toils, 
the privations, the dangers, our fathers endured, 
in order that they might make this wilderness 
"bloom and blossom as the rose" for us. 
Honor to their memory! Peace to their 
.ashes !* 

Samuel Seymour. 

With the name of Samuel Seymour, but few 

* Johnstown Democrat, Oct. 18, 1865. 



200 The Histoky of 

of the present citizens of Johnstown are famil- 
iar ; though in his day he was a conspicuous 
man in tliis community, and will be remem- 
bered by some of my older readers. 

Mr. Seymour was a citizen of one of the 
eastern States, and was by profession an artist. 
I use the term artist in the sense in which it 
was used fifty years ago, and not as applied to 
daguerreotypists, photographers, and so forth. 
He was a skillful and talented disciple of 
Angelo and Kembrandt, of Reynolds and 
West. 

In the early part of this century, he accom- 
panied the expedition of Colonel Long to the 
Rocky Mountains. That part of our country 
which is now included in the States of Mis- 
souri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and others, was then 
almost a terra incognita. It was a soil that had 
scarcely been pressed by the foot of a white man. 
Mr. Seymour, desirous of transferring to his 
canvas the wonders and beauties of that hith- 
erto unrevealed region, and of seeking adven- 
tures of a new and thrilling character in those 
western wilds, forsook the ease and safety of 
liome and friends, and volunteered in that 
arduous undertaking. He ascended with Col. 
Long the towering peak that still bears his 
name, and that stands, as it will ever stand, a 



The Conemaugh. 201 

giant sentinel to guard the route to the Pacific 
shores. The drawings which illustrated Col. 
Long's narrative of his expedition, were by 
the pendil of Mr. Seymour. He was an en- 
graver as well as painter, and his name may 
he found in many of the illustrated works of 
forty or fifty years ago. 

The few works of Mr. Seymour that have 
descended to our day, show him to have been 
a man of exquisite taste and culture. One of 
his oil paintings is in the possession of the 
writer. It represents a young lady — whether 
it is a portrait, or a mere fancy-sketch, perhaps 
will never be known. 

"She sits, inclining forward as to speak, 
Her lips half open, and her finger up, 
As though she said, 'Beware!' " 

The latter years of Mr. Seymour's life were 
spent in Blairsville and Johnstown. In the 
former town he made the acquaintance of the 
writer's father, who was also an artist, and 
became a frequent visitor at his house. 

About the year 1832, perhaps, he came to 
Johnstown, where he continued to reside until 
the period of his death, which occurred in 
May, 1834. He was aged about 50 years. He 
died in extreme poverty; for it is a singular 
fact, that genius and wealth are rarely found 
together. Where Mr. Seymour was buried is 



202 

not known to the writer. A few months ago, 
he, in company with a friend, searched among 
the old monuments in the Union Graveyard 
foi his tomb, but was unable to find it. If he 
was buried there, as in all probability he was, 
there is no mark by which his last resting 
place may be distinguished. 

Pittsburg is taking measures to erect a suit- 
able monument to the memory of her painter, 
Blythe, a man of similar genius and misfor- 
tunes; should not Johnstown make an effort 
to perpetuate the name of the great artist who 
died and lies buried within her limits? 



THE END. 



I.^nfl./-^ 



